Counselor Raped Student, Federal Jury Told Woman’s Civil Rights Suit Says School Should Have Known About Sexual Improprieties

A guidance counselor at Davenport High School repeatedly raped a student after paying her to make pornographic videos, a U.S. District Court jury was told Tuesday.

The jury will decide whether the Davenport School District is liable for damages for sexual improprieties by Charles “CJ” Jungblom.

Heather Giles, now 22, alleges the district violated her civil rights by condoning Jungblom’s actions or ignoring complaints against him.

Her lawsuit for unspecified damages names the small school district, but not the former girls basketball coach and counselor.

The young woman continues to suffer severe emotional distress and is having difficulties with employment and personal relationships, according to the lawsuit.

Her parents, John and Carol Giles, who moved to Davenport from Bellevue in 1991 in search of a quieter lifestyle, also are seeking damages.

The school district threw their lives into emotional chaos because its administrators failed to investigate and supervise Jungblom, argued attorney Dick Eymann, representing Giles.

The district disputes Giles’ claim that she was raped, and will attempt to convince the jury that she made the sex videos for Jungblom in exchange for money.

“The evidence will show that no sexual contact occurred,” school district attorney John Hotchkiss said in his opening statement.

Jungblom is serving a five-year federal prison term in Arizona for paying Giles to make sexually explicit videos.

His testimony was videotaped in November in the Arizona prison. The two-hour video will be played today for the jury and U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle.

Jungblom pleaded guilty in 1994 to sexual exploitation of a child after police caught him picking up a pornographic video mailed to him by Giles.

After Jungblom’s arrest, Giles was questioned by U.S. postal inspectors, State Patrol detectives and an assistant U.S. attorney.

The young woman made no mention of being raped by Jungblom in those interviews, Hotchkiss told the jury.

But Eymann said his client repressed her memories, and now contends Jungblom demanded sex from her on a weekly basis for about a year.

The rapes occurred in an upstairs bedroom in Jungblom’s house, about two blocks from the high school and grade school where his wife worked, Eymann told the jury.

Seven months after Jungblom was sentenced to prison, Giles and her parents filed a $2.4 million claim for damages against the school district.

When that claim was rejected in 1995, the family filed a federal lawsuit, alleging the district and its administrators violated federal law.

“We intend to prove the Davenport School District, through its administrators, had a lot of indicators and knowledge” about Jungblom’s conduct, Eymann said.

The school board president, district superintendent and high school principal “knew or should have known” that Jungblom was enticing high school girls to sign modeling contracts, Eymann said.

A few girls who signed up for modeling work, including a 12-year-old seventh-grader, later made a sexually explicit video for Jungblom, Eymann said.

The attorney told the jury that the plaintiffs have found witnesses who will testify that Jungblom’s lewd conduct with high school girls had gone on for a decade.

Jungblom once wore see-through shorts in the high school and on other occasions would walk into the girls’ shower room unannounced, Eymann told the jury.

After Giles transferred to Davenport from Bellevue during her sophomore year, Jungblom told her she faced a tough time because her mother is white and her father is African-American.

Later, Jungblom gave Giles a modeling contract from Pro-West Enterprises, a bogus company he formed. John Giles complained to Davenport High School Principal Harold Patterson and Carol Giles went to Superintendent Dave Iverson, Eymann said.

Both administrators promised action, but nothing happened to Jungblom, the attorney said.

Jungblom continued to solicit Heather Giles, promising her “she could make the kind of money and have the kind of fame” of actresses Vanessa Williams or Lisa Benot, Eymann said.

She initially agreed to pose for photos in a bikini at Jungblom’s house during a high school lunch break.

“The question here is, ‘What is a high school girl doing in a bikini at the high school counselor’s house?”’ Eymann asked the jury.

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