Private-school principal charged with rape of girl, 14

The principal of a private school in Arlington has been charged with third-degree rape of a child.

Mark Evan Brown, 37, principal of Highland Christian School, was arraigned Wednesday. He spent five hours in the Snohomish County Jail before being released on $100,000 bail Wednesday night.

According to charging papers, the story begins with Brown and a 14-year-old female student at the school exchanging hundreds of text messages and phone calls over the past three months. In some of those messages, Brown encouraged the girl to run away from home and promised to find her a place to stay if she did, according to charging papers.

On June 12, the girl took Brown up on his offer, prosecutors say. Brown prepared a little-used room at the school by putting a hide-a-bed and television in the room for her, prosecutors say. He arranged for somebody else to pick her up and bring her to the school, according to charging papers.

The next evening, Brown gave the girl rum and the two lay down together on the foldout bed, according to charging papers. Sexual contact followed, prosecutors say.

The parents of the girl didn't know where she was and contacted police to report a runaway child, prosecutors say. The girl's parents looked at a cellphone their daughter had been using and discovered hundreds of calls to and from Brown, according to charging papers. Detectives were then able to find the girl by tracing a prepaid "go-phone" she had with her when she ran away. The charging papers don't specify how many days the girl was gone from home.

The girl at first told Snohomish County detectives she'd had no sexual contact with Brown.

After the girl returned home last month, her family obtained a protection order precluding Brown from having contact with her, prosecutors say. But the principal and the girl spoke on the phone three times after the order was in place, and Brown urged the girl not to tell anybody about the sexual contact, prosecutors say.

Brown was initially arrested July 9 on suspicion of harboring the girl, and posted bail.

But on Monday, the girl told her mother there had been sexual contact, according to charging papers. She later told detectives the same thing, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. Prosecutors then charged Brown with a single felony rape count.

Detectives are not aware of any other possible victims, said Rebecca Hover, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.

Highland Christian School teaches K-12 and is located at 135 South French Ave., Arlington.

Under Washington state law, a person can be found guilty of third-degree rape of a child if the victim is between 14 and 16 years old and the perpetrator is at least four years older than the victim.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published July 24, was corrected July 29. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that a person in this state can be found guilty of third-degree rape of a child if the perpetrator is at least two years older than a victim aged between 14 and 16. In fact, the perpetrator must be at least four years older than the victim.