A former Seattle Public Schools volunteer coach charged with raping a Garfield High School student for years is being falsely accused, his lawyers said in King County Superior Court on Monday, while prosecutors described the devastating effect he had on the student’s life.
A jury heard opening statements Monday in the trial of Walter Jones, 48, who is charged with two counts of rape of a child in the second degree and two counts of rape of a child in the third degree.
If Jones is convicted as charged, he faces the potential of 23 years in prison on an indeterminate sentence that ultimately would be decided by the sentencing judge and the Department of Corrections, according to the director of communications at the King County prosecuting attorney’s office.
The crimes occurred between Feb. 8, 2012, and Feb. 7, 2016, when Jones was working as a volunteer weightlifting coach at Garfield High School and was helping train the girls’ basketball team, according to a trial memo submitted by the prosecutors.
In 2012, Jones was assigned to help train one 12-year-old student, according to the trial memo, who is identified only by her initials in the memo but was identified by her full name in court Monday. At the time, the student was at Washington Middle School but because of her basketball talent was given the opportunity to practice with the high school team. The Seattle Times typically does not name victims of sexual assault.
The former student is now 25 and will testify at the trial, prosecutors said Monday.
“What should’ve been a mentorship between Mr. Jones and (the student) was anything but a mentorship …” Alexandra Robins, one of the prosecuting attorneys representing the former student, said in an opening statement Monday. “What should’ve been a positive experience for (the student) turned into fear and sexual assault at the hands of Mr. Jones.”
Robins said Jones would rape the student multiple times after school and on weekends off campus starting when she was 12 years old and again when she was 14 and 15 years old.
One assault Robins described to the jury occurred on a Sunday afternoon after basketball practice had been canceled. The student still wanted to practice, and Jones picked her up in his car outside Garfield and told her he had equipment they could use. Jones drove her to a home in West Seattle, Robins said.
“When (the student) got to this house, she walked inside, she immediately knew something was not right. There wasn’t any workout equipment set out and Mr. Jones had her sit on a futon,” Robins said. “He proceeded to make her take off her clothing and he raped her.”
Robins described three additional rapes that happened at three different homes and other assaults that happened in a car over the years. The attorney also said Jones threatened to harm the student and her family if she told anyone. Jones would review her phone and get mad if she was talking to other people, Robins said.
“He took advantage of his position of power, position of trust to abuse (the student),” Robins said.
In the defense's opening statement, Jones’ attorneys said the former student’s allegations are lies, which she doubled down on during a relationship with another adult coach who sexually assaulted her.
“Sometimes a person tells a lie so big to so many people, that the lie becomes almost impossible to walk away from,” said Dennis Martin, one of the defense attorneys representing Jones. “That’s what happened to (the former student). She started spreading rumors about Walter Jones when she was in high school.”
Martin said that in high school, the student heard Jones telling a group of football players to stay away from her because she was a troublemaker. “So she decided to say things to other people that would make them want to stay away from Mr. Jones,” Martin said. She began making vague allegations against Jones, Martin said.
Later, when she was 17, she began a relationship with Marvin Hall, an assistant coach of Garfield’s boys basketball team. Hall and Jones were both named in a civil case the former student filed last year against Seattle Public Schools, which argued that the district failed to protect her from the two coaches who emotionally and sexually abused her.
The lawsuit resulted in the district paying a $16 million settlement — the largest in the district’s history. Last summer, Hall pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor.
Martin said Hall was controlling and emotionally abusive.
“One of the sources of friction in (Hall) and (the former student’s) relationship was that (she) had continued saying the sorts of things about (Jones) that she had said in high school and (Hall) didn’t believe her,” Martin said.
The student wouldn’t admit she lied, and instead embellished her story and invented details, ultimately going to the police in 2021, Martin said.
“Instead of coming clean she doubled down,” Martin said.
“What started out as a teenage bid for revenge, spiraled years later into a full fledged criminal investigation,” Martin said.
Witnesses who testified following opening statements on Monday included the former student’s mother, coaches and a classmate. The trial, which is expected to last 10 days, will resume Wednesday.
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