Ex-Katy ISD choir director gets probation for videotapes
Investigators found images of girls undressing
A former assistant choir director in Katy ISD must spend 20 days in jail and 10 years on probation after admitting to videotaping at least six students undressing in a changing room at school last year.
Clarence Appleby III, 29, of Katy, landed in the Harris County Jail late Monday after pleading guilty to two charges in exchange for deferred adjudication probation.
If he completes the probationary term without incident, the charges against him will be dismissed without a conviction on his record.
Appleby was arrested in October after a 17-yearold student found a camera in a closet that was used as a changing room at Mayde Creek High School.
The instructor told the teen to try on an assortment of choir gowns in the closet without her undergarments because he wanted to see the gowns “without lines,” court records show.
While trying on the gowns, the teen saw a wireless camera filming her and took it.
Appleby confronted the teen after she left and asked if she had “stolen” something, court records show. The girl gave the camera back, and the teacher took her into a classroom where he uploaded the video from the camera’s memory card to a computer and showed the girl the video of her changing. He then deleted the memory card and gave it to her telling her the videos were gone.
She reported the situation to school officials and police.
Investigators seized Appleby’s computer and found 186 thumbnail images and cropped photos of at least six teens un-
dressing in the closet.
On at least one video, music and announcements in the background showed that he was making a teenage girl undress on camera on May 24, 2016, during the school’s “Senior Walk,” a tradition in which seniors don their caps and gown to walk the halls handing out high-fives and handshakes.
Senior Walks also involve seniors going to elementary schools to inspire youngsters to complete their studies.
Investigators were able to identify at least six different female students changing clothes on camera, court records show, and at least one was filmed clearly without undergarments. Many of the images investigators found had been cropped to zoom in on the teens, records show.
They also show Appleby in different shirts indicating the episodes happened on different days. They also show him directing the girls to stand in one part of the closet, presumably so they would be most exposed, records show.
They did not appear to know they were being filmed, investigators said in court records.
Appleby was fired by the Katy Independent School District after the allegations arose in October.
On Monday, according to court records, he admitted guilt for attempted improper visual recording, a third-degree felony punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.
If he successfully completes the probation without a conviction, he would not have to register as a sex offender. If he violates probation, state District Judge Katherine Cabaniss can sentence him to the maximum.
As part of the plea deal, a felony charge of sexual performance by a child was also reduced to a misdemeanor count of attempted sexual performance by a child, to which he admitted guilt.