Ex-Student Claims Rape In School Suit Woman Says Davenport District Officials Failed To Protect Her From Counselor

Charles Jungblom didn’t just con Davenport High School students into posing nude for videos and photographs. The imprisoned former student counselor also raped one of the teenagers on a weekly basis, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Heather Giles and her parents claim in a damages suit that Davenport School District officials didn’t protect her from Jungblom, now serving a five-year sentence for sexually exploiting a child.

In a case that peeled the veneer off the Eastern Washington town’s wholesome small-town image, Jungblom admitted in May 1994 that he had lured schoolgirls with bogus modeling contracts, then paid at least one of them to perform in pornographic videos.

Jungblom’s contact with Giles, now 19, started in the spring of 1992 when the bald counselor and grandfather encouraged the athletic sophomore to become president of the school’s “High-5” pep club - of which he was faculty adviser.

Soon after coaxing her to do a “modeling” video, Jungblom raped Giles during a meeting he arranged to discuss her “High-5” activities, the suit claims. The suit does not say where the attack is alleged to have happened.

From that point, Jungblom raped Giles “at least once a week” for about a year, says the suit filed in federal court in Spokane by attorney Dick Eymann.

Jungblom is not named in the suit.

The Gileses’ lawyer does not say how much money he is seeking from the district and Davenport’s High School principal.

The lawsuit claims the sex was never consensual and that Jungblom blackmailed Giles into keeping quiet by threatening to anonymously mail her parents and classmates copies of her videos.

Davenport school officials had enough warning signs to suspect Jungblom was a sexual predator worthy of serious investigation, the suit maintains.

As a result of their inaction, Giles “suffered, and continues to suffer, major clinical depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, mental anguish, anxiety, humiliation, embarrassment, and physical and mental scarring.”

The suit also claims Giles and her parents were “ostracized and perceived in a bad light by many citizens of the Davenport community” as a result of the school district’s handling of the Jungblom case.

David Iverson, the Davenport superintendent, said late Tuesday he had not heard about the lawsuit. “I’m not in any position to talk to about it,” he said.

When Jungblom was arrested last year, Iverson’s response was: “It came as a complete and utter surprise to me. … We’re dropping jaws over here.”

Efforts to reach High School Principal Howard Patterson, the only named defendant in the case, were unsuccessful.

Jungblom had doted on Giles, loaning her both his computer and his truck, according to witnesses. He also paid her $2,000 for a video of herself writhing nude on a bed.

Jungblom’s involvement with Giles led to his downfall. After becoming aware of some of Jungblom’s actions, Giles’ mother, Carol Giles, contacted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

As Jungblom left the Davenport Post Office on Jan. 20, 1994, the Washington State Patrol pulled him over. Under his seat, they found a videotape Giles sent from Seattle.

Heather Giles sat in the courtroom with her parents five months later when Jungblom pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children.

In an interview last year, Giles’ father, John, said he planned on sticking around Davenport for a while.

“I want to be here to greet Chuck Jungblom the day he comes back from prison.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo