Anthony Alvarez, a 40-year-old former assistant principal at Arvada High School, was arrested after his wife discovered sexually explicit messages he exchanged with a 15-year-old high school student on Facebook and forced her husband to turn himself in, according to the Arvada police arrest affidavit. Alvarez was arrested on charges of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.
The Denver Post reports that Alvarez’s wife caught him “talking dirty” to a girl on the phone and a series of X-rated messages between the teenage student and her husband on his Facebook page.
According to the arrest affidavit, the girl said that she and Alvarez have had a relationship for six to eight months and that she felt that Alvarez was “blackmailing” her. The 15-year-old student had known Alvarez since she was in the seventh grade at Everett Middle School. The girl describes in detail the sexual acts Alvarez asked her to perform. She claims that Alvarez would touch her chest and butt on occasion, and once, he showed her his erection in his office.
Early in August, she described a particularly horrifying occasion where Alvarez allegedly offered to give her a ride home, she accepted because it was hot outside. Instead, she says in the arrest affidavit, that Alvarez drove her to a movie theater and parked. In the car he told her to rub and lick his penis. She did what he said because she was scared and the doors to the car were locked. After, Alvarez let her out of the car, she went into the movie theater and rinsed her mouth out with water and walked home.
The girl was scared and confused by the unfolding arrest of Alvarez, as well. When police asked to interview her at the Denver Children’s Advocacy Center, a safe house where officers could speak with her about the alleged abuse, she started to cry and thought the police were going to take her away from her parents.
Alvarez claims that he is not a predator, that she came onto him, and that he had never before had sexual relationships with anyone under the age of 18, according to the affidavit.
Alvarez is in charge of the cheerleading and pom squad at Arvada High School, 9News reports. Keara Collester, another Arvada High student said that, “Alvarez is a pretty cool guy. We go to him for everything. Everything just shocks me. He doesn’t seem like he would do that to a student.”
According to 7News, Alvarez has been a principal at Arvada High School since 2008 and has been with the Jeffco Public Schools District since 2000. Alvarez has been placed on paid administration leave pending the outcome of the investigation.