Ex-school officer takes plea deal

Relationship with student gets him 5 years’ probation

A former Houston Independent School District police officer accused of fondling a 14-year-old student at the school where he worked will spend five years on probation after pleading guilty Wednesday to having an improper relationship with a student.

Jacob Ryan Delgadillo, 30, was charged with two felony counts of indecency with a child, accused of having the girl perform oral sex on him and fondling her at Cullen Middle school on Nov. 18, 2015.

Delgadillo said little as he pleaded guilty to state District Judge Marc Carter but acknowledged that he will have to surrender his law enforcement license as part of the plea deal.

Facing a possible punishment of 20 years in prison, he agreed to spend five years on deferred adjudication, a form of probation that means he will not have a conviction on his record if he successfully completes the probation. He also will not have to register as sex offender.

If he violates the terms, which include not contacting the girl or having any contact with minors, he could be sentenced to the maximum punishment.

His attorney, Paul Aman, declined to comment after the brief hearing.

Prosecutor Jennifer Stabe said the girl’s family, who were not in court Wednesday, were satisfied with the result.

Stabe said the two counts of indecency with a child were dismissed as part of the plea. The charge of improper relationship with a student means Delgadillo admitted only to placing the girl’s hand on his genitals.

During the fall of 2015, Delgadillo apparently raised suspicion when a teacher saw him looking for the girl through a classroom window and blowing kisses at her.

The girl told a teacher that she had performed oral sex on him in the girls’ bathroom on campus.

The girl told police that Delgadillo also showed her naked pictures of himself on his cellphone.

Investigators later found several cellphone photos of him in various states of undress, including one in which he is exposing himself in his campus office and dressed in his campus uniform.

Delgadillo was assigned to Cullen Middle School before his resignation in December 2015, school officials said.