UPDATE - Trial set for Dec. 13….Former Kamiak Coach Julian Willis Felony Sex Crimes Trial Continued Again
The former substitute teacher was set to face jury trial last Friday. Prosecutors say he serially assaulted a minor Kamiak student. The matter has been continued four times already.
SNOHOMISH COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT —
UPDATE: The Julian Willis jury trial is set for December 13, 2024. See document above. - KTH
Disgraced former Kamiak assitant football coach and substitute teacher Julian Willis’ jury trial was set to begin Friday in Everett. Those who showed up eager to watch the alleged serial predator face justice instead were told that the case was “continued for unspecified reasons”.
The former teacher and paraeducator faces three charges of felony sex crimes involving a minor student.
Julian Willis poses a significant threat to the public, particularly against those in vulnerable environments, given the historical extent of his predatory behavior and his blatant disregard for the rule of law.
- Detective Eric Ofori, Mukilteo Police Department
This is the fourth delay of the Willis trial, and as a result, a man whom detectivesx say poses a significant flight risk and risk to the public at large…a man accused of multiple sex crimes against a minor student…a man who previously fled rape investigations in three different western states…a man who allegedly raped a near-catatonic patient in an inpatient recovery1… facility remains free on bond.
“What I Want to Do Would Get Us Both in Trouble” - Willis to Minor Student
J425 broke the story in the Spring of 2023. Our follow-up story detailing his alleged crimes supported by inappropriate TikTok posts Willis filmed inside district portables remains our most-read and shared story. You can read it here, paywall removed courtesy of J425 paid subscribers.
Willis was fired by the school district hours after our initial story broke. In the months that followed, we reported that Willis had fled previously fled rape charges in three states and faced credible, documented assault allegation from at least five additional victims.
With the Snohomish County Prosecutor facing a backlog of some 6,000 cases, Willis remained free awaiting trial.
During that time, the married father of two accosted a minor Lake Stevens High School student on Fathers’ Day morning in the Lake Stevens Haggen grocery store. The alleged predator made contact with the teen girl five time in the grocery store.
The girl — who recognized Willis from J425’s reporting — fled in her car only to have Willis follow her to a second location. The matter was reported to Lake Stevens police and days later a multi-agency raid picked up Willis at his Lake Stevens-area residence. He was booked in early July 2023 but released 72 hours later when charges went unfiled.
The Snohomish County Prosecutor filed charges in October of 2023, building a case around three of the alleged sex acts involving a Kamiak student. At least two of the charges are backed up by DNA evidence pulled from the carpet of a Kamiak portable, located after the victim detailed where and when the crimes occurred. Detectives yellow-taped off the Kamiak classroom and cut out the carpets. The Washington State Crime lab linked Willis to the sample. Willis is charged with three felony counts of sexual misconduct involving a minor. Each count comes with a maximum of five years in prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registry.
Willis targeted his victim while serving as a Kamiak football coach. The victim was a volunteer manager for the football program, at that time helmed by former coach and Dean of Students Bryant Thomas. Other members of the coaching staff included
Lynnwood City Councilman and former Congressional candidate Josh Binda.
Willis came to the attention of Mukilteo police in late March 2023 — some five months after he began his alleged assaults on the minor victim, and more than four months after the end of the football season.
The investigation started when Dean of Students Bryant Thomas — who’d also been the football coach while Willis committed his alleged sex crimes — brought forward what he described as an anonymous community tip regarding Willis and an unnamed student.
An initial investigation conducted by a school resource officer located the identity of the victim, after Thomas initially said he was unaware of the victim’s identity, then named a Kamiak football player whom Thomas said knew the name of the victim.
When this student, thrown into a criminal investigation by his coach and dean of students declined to speak with police, Thomas reportedly conferenced with the student and brought back a name to the investigator.
All of this was enough smoke for the resource officer to alert detectives at MPD, and on April 11 a detective trained in the investigation of sex crimes began a more comprehensive investigation.
One of the first things the detective did was to determine that Thomas misled the initial investigation, writing that Thomas did not first learn about Willis’ alleged crimes from an anonymous tip, instead finding that the a fellow assistant coach brought rumors of Willis’ alleged crimes to Thomas after the matter was openly discussed by multiple players during the 2022 football season.
“Although initial reports noted that a community member reported the allegation of inappropriate relations with a student to the school, interviews confirmed that Damon Terry, another assistant coach on the football team, reported the allegations to Bryant Thomas, Dean of Students and head football coach, after (Terry) overheard rumors throughout the football season of… (an) inappropriate relationship between Julian and a student,”
- Mukilteo Police Detective Eric Ofori, in investigative documents filed June 28 in Snohomish County Court.
Had Willis’ been confronted during the 2022 season, the victim could’ve been saved three additional sexual assaults at the hands of Willis, including one in which Willis pulled the victim out of her midday leadership class, took her to his portable, locked the door and assaulted her, pushing her out the door minutes ahead of the next class.
Thomas quietly quit his role as football coach and Dean of Students, taking a job at Portland State University. Despite the fact that public school employees face criminal culpability for failing to report even rumors of child sexual abuse within 24 hours, to date no charges have been filed against Thomas. Further, if Mukilteo School District conducted a fact-finding investigation into the Kamiak program in order to determine who knew what when, and why a student volunteer was allowed to be assaulted months after rumors of the crimes committed against her were reported to the Dean of Students remains an open question.
Instead of conducting a transparent investigation, Kamiak named Thomas assistant Ivan McLennan as the new head football coach. McLennan, who is not accused of wrongdoing, immediately blocked J425 when we contacted him to ask what changes, if any, he’d institute to insure the safety of all students associated with the program.
J425 received national recognition for our reporting of the Willis matter, with the Local Independent Online Newspaper association naming J425 a finalist for the 700-member organization’s Journalistic Impact award.
J425 reached out to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s office for an update on the Willis matter. Previously, the attorney handling the matter has let us know what’s going on so we will update this situation as info becomes available. We’ve also asked the Mukilteo School District whether any investigation was conducted into student safety concerns / reporting violations identified during the Willis investigation. We’ll let you know what we find out.
Per court documents filed by Mukilteo detective Alex Ofiori, June 28, 2023.
Previously:
Why is this sicko not being monitored? And why does the trial keep getting delayed?