A former Mercedes ISD coach pleaded not guilty last week to having an inappropriate relationship with a student, a charge stemming from a 2021 arrest that caused significant uproar in the school district.
David Reyes, a former Harrell Middle School employee, was arraigned Thursday and his trial for the inappropriate relationship charge is set for December.
Investigators with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office arrested Reyes on April 6, 2021, after he allegedly gave a minor items of a sexual nature and made several verbal sexual advances. Reyes’ indictment sheds more light on that arrest.
According to the indictment, while he was a Harrell Middle School employee, Reyes asked his alleged victim — a Weslaco East High School student — whether she had used a sex toy he gave her “with the intent to commit the offense of sexual performance by a child.”
The indictment describes those messages as sexually explicit and says they occured on or around March 20, 2021. The district said at the time of Reyes’ arrest that “as of March 2021, the individual in question is no longer employed with MISD” and that student and personnel matters were addressed in accordance with district policies.
In June 2021, the sheriff’s office again arrested Reyes, charging him with two counts of sexual assault of a child and one charge of indecency with a child, charges police said resulted from locating three additional victims who reported abuse going back about 20 years.
Controversy followed Reyes’ arrest. The district’s then-superintendent was almost placed on leave by trustees immediately following the first arrest, and a faction on the board pushed unsuccessfully to hire an outside entity to look into administrative procedures and action taken on allegations of sexual assault and improper relationships between students and educators at the district.
