Ex-Student Says Davenport Counselor Raped Her Victim Of Sexual Exploitation By Jungblom Now Files Claim Against School District
A Davenport High School counselor and coach repeatedly raped a teenage girl after coercing her into making sexually explicit videos, a $2.4 million claim alleges.
The claim was filed Wednesday against the Eastern Washington school district by former student Heather Giles, now of Seattle, and her parents, John and Carol Giles of Davenport.
It was accompanied by a copy of a U.S. District Court lawsuit that will be filed in 60 days if the claim is rejected, said attorney Dick Eymann.
School district officials declined comment Wednesday.
“The insurance company is calling the shots, and we have no comment,” said Davenport Superintendent Dave Iverson.
Don Boyk, Davenport School Board president, also wouldn’t comment.
The claim names the Davenport School District - but not its former counselor and coach Charles “CJ” Jungblom, who is serving a five-year federal prison sentence.
“No deals have been made with Jungblom, nor will there be any,” said Eymann.
The attorney, who has represented several other women in high-profile sex case lawsuits, wouldn’t say why he didn’t name Jungblom or school district officials as defendants.
Jungblom pleaded guilty last May in U.S. District Court to one count of sexual exploitation of a child.
The 53-year-old educator confessed that he had Heather Giles and other high school girls film sexually explicit videos. Investigators never found out what Jungblom did with the videotapes. He said he destroyed them.
He was arrested in January 1994 after picking up a video of Heather Giles at the Davenport post office.
The rape allegations didn’t surface during the criminal case.
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they learned about the alleged rapes after Jungblom had pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation charge.
The claim says the counselor “coerced and enticed” Heather Giles, who is now 19, to make the videos. She was a sophomore when Jungblom first approached her, Eymann said.
The school district - through its school board and administrators, including Superintendent Iverson and Principal Harold Patterson - didn’t properly investigate or take action against Jungblom after numerous complaints, the claim says.
Authorities say Jungblom recruited the girls by saying he’d help them find modeling jobs.
For a time, the school district’s daily newsletter to teachers urged girls interested in modeling careers to contact Jungblom.
“After Jungblom had successfully coerced the first video with sexual connotations from Heather Giles, he raped her” at a meeting of the “High5” pep club, the claim alleges.
Jungblom was the pep club adviser and Giles was its student president.
“Thereafter, for a period of approximately one year, Heather Giles was raped by Charles Jungblom at least once a week,” the claim says. “The sex-on-demand by Jungblom was never consensual.”
Jungblom told the teenager he would give the sex videos to her parents and boys at school if she talked about the sex.
Because of the school district’s failure to protect her, she has “been ostracized … and perceived in bad light by naive persons and bigots” in Davenport, the claim says.
She also suffers “major clinical depression,” it says.
The claim says her damages are in excess of $2 million and her parents’ damages total $400,000.
The draft suit does not seek specified damages but does ask for punitive damages for the school district’s negligence.
John and Carol Giles declined comment on the claim.
Jungblom, serving time in a federal prison in Safford, Ariz., could not be reached for comment.
John T. Rodgers, the attorney who represented Jungblom in the criminal case, said he was surprised by the filing of the claim.
“Even though I don’t represent him in this civil action, Mr. Jungblom would be happy to issue a categorical denial” of these charges, Rodgers said.
Eymann said the young woman did not discuss the rape allegations earlier because she felt traumatized, intimidated and threatened by Jungblom.