A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified Wednesday that former Lakeview Middle School band director and one of his alleged victims had a combined total of 5,231 texts and phone calls with each other over the course of two years.
The girl was 14 at the time Thomas Howard Blevins III allegedly forced her to perform a sex act on him in a dark storage room.
She had previously been one of his band students.
The GBI agent said that the extensive contact between the two individuals began on Sept. 9, 2010, a little more than three months before one of the alleged offenses.
He also presented information taken from AT&T phone records that showed the defendant had similar contact with at least three other female students.
One of those girls testified that Blevins sexually assaulted her, calling her out of another class and into the band room where he fondled and kissed her.
The other two were among several former and current Lakeview students who said that Blevins had inappropriate physical, verbal, or online contact with them, sometimes asking for pictures or texting that they were “cute.”
So far, nine girls have testified that they were themselves subjected to inappropriate actions by Blevins, or that they witnessed him act inappropriately toward their friends.
Richard Stickler, the Lakeview High School band director, also testified on Wednesday saying that he considered Blevins’ casual relationships with students improper, especially since all Catoosa County teachers had been told to avoid such situations by the Professional Standards Commission.
He said that he defended it by saying that Blevins “felt that some students just needed someone to talk to.”
On Tuesday, the first alleged victim said that on Dec. 23, 2010, Blevins asked her to come to the band room to help work on some dysfunctional bass clarinets. She said that when she got there, he spoke with her for a few minutes in his office before telling her to go to the storage room “whenever she was ready.”
According to the victim, he then put a music stand against the main door so that he would be alerted by anyone else coming in.
He then allegedly followed her back into the storage room where he moved a rack of chairs to block one of two doors that was not already blocked by equipment, shut off the light, grabbed her arm, and forced her to sit on his lap in a waiting chair while he began to kiss her and remove her clothes.
She said he led her to the back of the room where blankets and pillows were already lying on the floor. She said he then forced her to perform the sex act, saying afterward, “I got everything I wanted.”
The girl said that Blevins was responsible for more inappropriate action than this one incident - repeatedly texting her, even hours after the alleged assault to say, “Thanks for the early Christmas present.”
Several other girls who were or are students at Lakeview gave similar testimony on Tuesday alleging that over the course of several years, Blevins had inappropriate contact with them.