Former Longview Teacher’s Trial is This Month

LONGVIEW — A trail date has been set for a former Longview High School teacher facing multiple sex charges. Robert Craig Varnell, 57, is scheduled to appear in 188th State district Court on September 23rd. Varnell was arrested in May 2011, and released six months later. He was arrested again in September of last year after prosecutors presented evidence he violated terms of his bond by contacting a former student, the alleged victim of sexual assault. He remains in the Gregg County Jail on $1.25 million bond. Jail records show he is facing charges of indecency with a child by sexual contact and sexual assault of a child.

Varnell was re-arrested September 14, 2012, after a bond revocation hearing in which Gregg County Assistant District Attorney Stacey L. Brownlee presented evidence Varnell had violated the conditions of his bond by contacting the alleged victim through email. According to court documents filed at the time of Varnell’s indictment, a 16-year-old boy told authorities Varnell had inappropriate physical contact with him numerous times from 2007 to 2011. The alleged contact detailed in the court documents first occurred at a computer lab at LeTourneau University, where Varnell was employed, when the boy was 13.

Later incidents allegedly occurred in the victim’s classroom at Foster Middle School, in Dallas, in Austin, at the boy’s residence, and at Holly Lake Ranch.