Molestation suit against principal cites text messages

Another message said: I just want forgiveness, please.

The teen and a former teacher who saved copies of that text and other brief messages say they were sent by a school principal who was also pastor of the teen's church.

The former student alleges in a lawsuit that Randy S. Musgrove used his position as principal and pastor to sexually molest and harass her starting when she was 14. She told police he bought her a cell phone and offered cash to keep her from telling anyone, a police report says.

Musgrove denies the allegations and has not been charged with a crime. None of the 20 text messages that have surfaced in the case admit any sexual conduct.

Musgrove was pastor of Tucson's Hope Chapel, a church located at the Lakeside campus of La Paloma Academy, 8140 E. Golf Links Road. He has since moved to Phoenix and become principal of Liberty Traditional Charter School.

When a police officer interviewed the young woman in November 2007, she said she had been molested at Musgrove's home and again later in his car, a police report says.

She said she always resisted his advances and he apologized after he stopped touching her, the officer reported.

After those incidents, the woman told police, Musgrove "bought her things like clothes and cell phones to keep her from saying anything. ... She stated that the suspect would also offer her money to keep her from saying anything about the incidents," a police report says.

She said her cell phone was under Musgrove's name until recently and that he paid the bill, the officer reported.

Musgrove could not be reached for comment. His Tucson attorney, Jack Redhair, did not return calls. But Robert Berk, the attorney representing La Paloma Academy in the suit, said Musgrove "vociferously and categorically" denies the allegations and that the school supports him in his defense.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants, which also include La Paloma Academy, Hope Chapel and Musgrove's wife, who worked as a teacher's aide, knew or should have known the molestation was occurring and should have prevented it.

"The school's position is that if these allegations are true — if the sex molestation occurred — the school had no reason to believe it was occurring," Berk said.

Musgrove's relationship with the alleged victim when she was at La Paloma drew the attention of Shari Brown, who testified she found it inappropriate that he gave the teen rides in his car and paid for pizza, a pedicure and other things.

Brown spent nearly 20 years as a Tucson police officer. After she retired from law enforcement, she taught fourth grade for a year at the Lakeside campus, then got to know the alleged victim after leaving that job.

Around October or November of 2007, the young woman called Brown and revealed she'd been involved in "some stuff with a married man," the ex-detective testified in a deposition last April.

Brown asked if it was Randy Musgrove and the woman said yes, then confirmed it was "sexual stuff" but not sexual intercourse, Brown testified.

Brown said she reported the matter to the teen's legal guardian, who said she would notify police. But the family held off doing so because the teen was concerned about the impact on the Musgrove family, the school and church, Brown testified.

Later, Brown recalled, the young woman "called me, crying, and said that Randy had sent her text messages as to why she wasn't attending services at the church anymore."

Brown testified she got mad that he would have the nerve to ask such a question: "And so I texted him, and I said, this is Shari. I think enough harm has been done. Leave her alone. Not in those words; something to that effect."

She said Musgrove texted back, verbatim: "I hav always been there to help her" — and several other messages that Brown saved.

None of the 20 text messages she saved or others that she saw before her phone automatically deleted them admitted any molestation, she testified.

Attorneys Lynne M. Cadigan and Michael Bloom filed the woman's suit in January in Pima County Superior Court.

In depositions over the past few months, attorneys elicited the testimony of Brown and a few others likely to be witnesses if the civil case goes to trial. But they haven't completed the depositions of the two people who know what really happened — the alleged victim and the principal. They may be questioned under oath in late September.