Fort Worth nonprofit leader accused of asking teen for explicit photo

The chairman of a nonprofit mentoring program for at-risk boys, which has had contracts with two area school districts, has been accused of asking a teenage boy to send him an explicit photo.

Paul Dean Jamison Jr., who founded Developing Boys To Men (DBTM) in 2009, was arrested Friday morning. Bail was set at $10,000.

Jamison, 33, faces a charge of online solicitation of a minor/promotion or possession of child pornography.

The arrest warrant affidavit says Jamison asked a 15-year-old boy affiliated with the organization for the photo in phone text messages.

“Based on the interview this morning with Mr. Jamison, we feel like there may be more victims or witnesses that had inappropriate communications with him,” said police Sgt. Wade Walls, supervisor of the crimes against children unit.

Through DBTM, police say, Jamison had contact with a number of minors.

The organization has had contracts with Fort Worth and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school districts and has earned praise from Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks, according to its website.

“I support Developing Boys To Men and everything it stands for,” Price is quoted as saying on the group’s website. “We need organizations like this to bring up young men that stand strong in the city of Fort Worth.”

The idea started in January 2009 after the Rev. Douglas Brown suggested that a mentoring program was needed in Fort Worth. The Great Commission Baptist Church had operated a similar ministry, called Boys To Men, since 1997.

Jamison and a few others created DBTM in September 2009. It is not affiliated with Great Commission Baptist, the website points out.

DBTM works with boys ages 8 to 18 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Its programs include tutoring and college preparation, community service, career planning and decision making, and anger management.

The organization’s motto is “No man is a real man until he is God’s Man.”

Started with a bet

According to the affidavit, written by Detective A. Heise, police were called to a Fort Worth home on Oct. 13 where they met with the 15-year-old and his grandmother.

The pair told police that the teen had received text messages from Jamison with sexual content and that Jamison had asked for a photo of the teen’s penis.

Two days later, the teen told a forensic interviewer that he had attended DBTM meetings at Worth Heights Community Center and gone on field trips with the group.

The teen said he had made a bet with Jamison two weeks earlier that he could abstain from looking at pornography. If the teen failed, Jamison would take away the teen’s Xbox game system for a day, the affidavit states.

The teen said Jamison engaged in a text message conversation with him on Oct. 13 that included talk about sex, Jamison’s wife and the teen’s girlfriend.

During the texting, the affidavit states, Jamison said the teen lost the bet by looking at an online video sent to the teen by his girlfriend.

“The suspect then told the victim that he was going to take his Xbox away from him since he lost the bet,” the affidavit states. “When the victim expressed anger about losing his Xbox, the suspect then gave the victim a second option. The suspect texted the victim that he could keep the Xbox if he sent the suspect a picture of his penis.”

The teen told police that he refused to send the picture and told Jamison that the conversation was making him uncomfortable and to stop talking about sex.

Police searched the teen’s phone, which showed text messages corroborating what he had said, the affidavit states.

The teen’s mother told police she learned about the text messages after her son told her that he was mad at Jamison. She said she had taken her son’s cellphone to send Jamison a text message when she saw the earlier exchange between the man and her son.

“The victim’s mother expressed concern about the suspect’s conversation with the victim,” Heise wrote in the affidavit. “She also stated that she fears for the safety of the other young boys who are involved with this program.”

Response to arrest

Cheraya Peña, press secretary for Price and the City Council, said Friday afternoon, “It’s terrible and a disgusting thing to hear about this crime. We know justice will be served.”

Peña said that the mayor’s quote on the group’s website is believed to have come from a brief welcoming speech that Price gave at a fund-raising event for DBTM this summer at Echo Park.

“Various community leaders were asked to talk about the importance of education in our community,” Peña said.

Clint Bond, a Fort Worth school district spokesman, said Jamison began working with the district in January as an approved vendor to provide after-school mentoring services to at-risk youth.

Jamison’s contract expired in June and records indicate he was paid a total of $900 for his work, Bond said. Subsequently, Jamison became subcontractor for a company called Clayton Yes!, which also provides after-school mentoring services for the district, Bond said.

Clayton Yes! Interim CEO Mary Lee Hafley said Saturday that while she believes some of the Clayton Yes! kids likely had interaction with Jamison, Clayton Yes! primarily deals with elementary schools and some middle schools, “so the young man involved in the charge would not have been in our program.”

As soon as she learned of Jamison’s arrest Friday afternoon, Hafley said she instructed staff to cancel all contracts with DBTM.

The school district provides background checks for all contractors before they begin working with Clayton Yes!, and sometimes Clayton Yes! conducts its own background checks as well, Hafley said.

“This is something you always want to prevent from happening,” Hafley said. “It just lets us know how vigilant all organizations need to be. People can pass all the background checks available, and that doesn’t mean we still don’t need to be vigilant for the safety of our children.”

The district did five background checks on Jamison and turned up no criminal involvement, and there is no indication that anything occurred on a Fort Worth school district campus, Bond said.

Jamison was in eight Fort Worth schools on various dates between March and October, Bond said.

“We don’t allow contractors or sub-contractors to be alone with students one-on-one,” Bond said. “He was always in a group setting. Nothing that led to this arrest occurred on a Fort Wortth campus.”

Meagan Overman, a Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school district spokeswoman, said officials in her district were notified of the arrest on Friday, and immediately cut all ties with the program.

The program had been operating at Boswell High School as a voluntary extracurricular mentoring opportunity for adolescent males, Overman said in an emailed statement.

“We have nothing to indicate that our students are involved in the police investigation and we have not received any complaints about the program or its leader,” Overman said. “Anyone who works directly with our students or in our schools must pass a full background check. Additionally, no student was alone with the program leader during any of the group sessions, which also were monitored by counselors and campus administrators.”

Commissioner Brooks said that although he supports the mentoring mission of DBTM, “I urge the organization to act quickly to protect the young men, and the organization itself.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Fort Worth nonprofit leader accused of asking teen for explicit photo."