A North Texas man has been arrested, accused of four counts of sexual assault of a child after Keller police say he paid four underage teenage girls for sex and provided them with alcohol and illegal drugs.
Following a two-week investigation, Keller police revealed allegations Thursday that 44-year-old Timothy James Burns sexually assaulted four girls age 16 or younger at his home in Arlington.
Keller police said they began investigating Burns on Jan. 21 after one of the girls told her parents she had sex for money; the girl's parents then notified the police who opened an investigation.
An interview between one of the victims and the Alliance for Children was recorded in an arrest warrant obtained by NBC 5. During the interview, the victim said a friend told her she could get paid for hanging out a man's house, but that she later realized "hanging out was not all that would have to be done for money."
The teenager said they went to the man's house, where he provided marijuana and alcohol. She said "she did not plan to lose her virginity to him," but that she later had sexual intercourse with the man when her friend didn't, according to the affidavit. For this, she told interviewers she was paid $200 and her friend was paid $200 for introducing them.
When asked if she knew the man's age, or if he knew hers, she's quoted in the arrest warrant as saying she thought he was 29 and that he never asked her age but that she assumed her friend had shared that information with him.
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A second victim said Burns offered her more money, $350, after she initially turned down his offer for sex. On a subsequent visit, she said she was paid less, $200, because she used his Uber account to get home. The victims said on other visits they were offered between $50 and $500 to perform various sexual acts with the man, according to statements made in the arrest warrant.
Capt. Tommy Simmons, with the Keller Police Department, said all of the reported sexual assaults occurred between September 2015 and January 2016 at Burns' tony Lake Arlington home located on the 2600 block of Perkins Road. In the warrant, the teens described Burns' home, and his bedroom, in great detail.
Little is know about Burns, including how long he may have lived at the Arlington residence, since recent property tax records are not in his name and recent real estate records indicate the $1.2 million home had been listed for sale in October 2015.
Simmons said even though the incidents took place in Arlington, Keller police are leading the investigation since all of the suspected victims, who attend school in the Keller Independent School District, live in their jurisdiction.
Simmons said Burns has no affiliation to the school district and that he met his four victims through an unnamed adult teenager from Keller he met previously on the website SeekingArrangement.com. Officials said it's only a coincidence the victims are all students in the KISD.
"Keller ISD is alarmed to learn of the arrest of an Arlington man on felony charges of sexual assault involving high school students. While Keller PD continues its investigation we have confirmed the suspect has never been an employee of the district. Student safety is a top priority in Keller ISD, and we urge parents to talk to their students and notify authorities with any additional information regarding this matter," the district said in a statement Thursday morning.
Keller police issued four arrest warrants and a search warrant and took Burns into custody at the office of his attorney, Charles Smith, at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The attorney has not spoken to the media.
Officers executed the search warrant on Feb. 10 and removed a number of items from Burns' home including multiple phones, computers, tablets, thumb drives, a camera and a clock with a hidden camera inside.
Burns was charged with four second-degree felony counts of sexual assault of a child and was held overnight Thursday until he went before a judge Friday morning. He was later released after posting $25,000 bond.
Simmons said investigators are not sure if there are more victims, but that parents in the area are encouraged to talk to their children to see if they had been contacted by Burns. If so, parents are asked to call the Keller Police Department at 817-743-4535.
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NBC 5's Todd L. Davis and Jocelyn Lockwood contributed to this report.
