Kamiak sub teacher arrested, accused of sexually abusing student

MUKILTEO —An ex-paraeducator at Kamiak High School was arrested Thursday to face allegations of sexual misconduct with a student, over a month after he was fired from the district.

Julian Willis, 34, an assistant football coach and emergency substitute teacher at Kamiak and Mariner high schools, was placed on leave in early April after another assistant coach alerted the head coach and Dean of Students.

An investigation led to the Mukilteo School District firing Willis in late May, said district spokesperson Diane Bradford.

Kamiak Principal Stephen Shurtleff sent out a statement to students and families last month asking those with information on the case to direct tips to the school’s anonymous “safety tip reporting tool.”

Willis appeared Friday before Everett District Court Pro Tem Judge Karen Campbell with his “support system” present. Deputy prosecutor Kirk Mahjoubian recommended five counts sexual misconduct with a minor for each encounter with the student and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

Prosecutors later dropped the last count.

Willis’ defense attorney Stephen Ritchie argued not every encounter fit the legal definition of sexual intercourse, and that the alleged relationship between the defendant and student was consensual and since both parties were over the age of 16.

“This isn’t even a sex crime by law,” Ritchie said Friday.

State law generally forbids school employees from having sexual contact with an enrolled student under the age of 21.

Campbell set bail at $7,500.

The former paraeducator has been accused of at least four other sex crimes, including rape, in Lake Stevens and Idaho, according to a police report. Court records suggest he was never charged for these accusations.

Court documents say Willis and the Kamiak student had five sexual encounters from November 2022 to March.

The district hired Willis in September 2022 as an assistant football coach at Kamiak, Bradford said. At the same time, the student began working with the football team. Willis would flirt with her at practice, but she didn’t think anything of it, according to a police search warrant. The comments reportedly became more inappropriate over time.

In November 2022, Willis met with the student and sexually abused her in an unoccupied rental property he managed, according to the search warrant.

Two other encounters occurred in portable classrooms on campus when Willis worked as a substitute teacher, the search warrant says. Willis reportedly stopped by her classes and “nudged” her to meet him in a portable. Another time, Willis texted her to meet in another portable, according to the police report.

Detectives filed search warrants, in part, to collect DNA evidence from the portables. The Washington State Patrol crime labratory concluded “very strong support for the inclusion of Julian Willis as a possible contributor,” the police report said.

Willis would tell the student he wanted to “spoil her” and take her out on a “proper date” somewhere no one would recognize them, the search warrant says. The suspect would also tell her he wished they met in high school.

On March 31, an assistant football coach reported the suspected misconduct to school leadership, according to police.

On the same day as the report, three students told staff Willis may have been recording them with his phone during their yoga class, according to police records.

Willis had a popular TikTok account with his wife, revolving around their real estate business. The account appears to have been deleted.

Willis remained in Snohomish County Jail on Friday.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the bail set for Julian Willis. A judge set the bail at $7,500, not $75,000.

Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.