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FORT WORTH -- A former Western Hillls teacher and coach was sentenced Thursday to 10 years' probation for having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old female student.
Jurors deliberated more than four hours over two days before recommending that 29-year-old Rudolph Anthony Garza serve no prison time. The sentence was immediately imposed by 371st District Judge Mollee Westfall. She ordered Garza to serve 180 days in the Tarrant County Jail as part of his probation.The jury deliberated about two hours Tuesday before convicting him.He had faced up to 20 years in prison, and he does not get credit for any time he was in jail awaiting trial.Westfall also ordered that Garza attend sex-offender treatment, have no job that brings him in contact with anyone under the age of 18 and to be evaluated for possible substance abuse. On Wednesday in the punishment phase of the trial, jurors heard testimony that Garza had sex with a Dallas student five months before having sex with the Western Hills student.During the two-day trial, witnesses testified that Garza, a teacher and coach at Western Hills, began a relationship with the 18-year-old in the fall of 2008 which culminated when they had sex on Oct. 31 at a Fort Worth hotel.After students began spreading rumors about the relationship, school officials investigated and called police in Benbrook, where the school is located.The teen, who is not being named because of the sexual nature of the crime, initially denied that she had had sex with Garza. But when a police detective told her they could get text messages between her and Garza, she acknowledged what happened.Garza resigned from the Fort Worth school district during the police investigation.On Wednesday, prosecutors Keith Harris and Kelly Loftus called another girl, who testified that she had had a similar relationship with Garza when she was an 18-year-old senior at Hillcrest High School in Dallas.The teen, now 19 and a college student, said she sneaked out of her house at 3 a.m. to have sex with Garza at his home a week or two before her prom in May 2008. She said she continued to have sex with Garza after graduation until school officials contacted her in June with questions about the relationship.Both she and Garza repeatedly denied the relationship. Garza resigned from the Dallas school district and Dallas police never pursued charges, a school official said. However, school officials reported the results of their investigation to the Texas Education Agency as required by law.The teen said she was away at college when someone contacted her through Facebook to tell her that Garza was having a relationship with another student. She said she told the truth when Tarrant County prosecutors contacted her because she realized that Garza had a pattern of such offenses.Defense attorneys Thayer Williamson and John Galvin called as witnesses a therapist who treats sex offenders and Garza’s mother and sister, who testified that Garza likely would do well if he was granted probation.Garza also testified, apologizing for both offenses.
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