Harper ISD teacher arrested for illegally recording a minor

A Harper ISD Assistant Band Director was arrested for illegally recording a minor.  On Thursday, Gillespie County released the full affidavit of Pedro De Luna III, who was arrested on Monday for allegedly recording a 15-year-old Harper High School student.

According to the arrest affidavit, on Nov. 7, after the Harper High School football game, DeLuna III allegedly invited the victim’s mother and, subsequently, the victim, over to his residence so that he and the victim’s mother could have a “couple of beers.”  The victim’s mother agreed, and DeLuna traveled with the victim to his residence, with the victim’s mother and sibling following about 10 minutes behind in a separate vehicle.

Upon arriving at the home, the victim told DeLuna she was cold and wanted to change into another set of clothes she had brought with her.  The affidavit then alleged that DeLuna went to ‘clean’ the bathroom, as his wife’s clothing had allegedly been left out.  After he was done, DeLuna told the victim the bathroom was ‘good to go.’

Detectives noted that DeLuna is married; however, his wife and child were out of town at the time of the incident.  While she was changing clothes, the victim noticed that on a pile of clothes in the corner of the room, DeLuna had allegedly attempted to conceal his cellphone, with only the cameras exposed.

Upon inspection, the phone had been recording video of the victim changing.  The victim then stopped the recording and went to tell her mother what had happened, leaving the phone in the bathroom.  When the victim’s mother confronted DeLuna, he said that he must have dropped his phone in the bathroom while he was cleaning.

Upon inspection, no videos of the victim were found on the phone; however, the victim’s mother had raised suspicion about recently deleted photos.  According to detectives, DeLuna’s search history had also been cleared, with the search history resuming with the search “how to retrieve deleted videos.”

When detectives went to interview DeLuna, he claimed he had dropped his phone on the pile of clothes.  He emphasized to detectives that his phone camera had not been working.  Detectives took in the suspect’s phone and inspected the device events, which showed that during the alleged timeframe, DeLuna’s phone had been placed on Do Not Disturb, and video recording had been active for about four minutes.

DeLuna was arrested and taken into custody at the Gillespie County Jail.  His bond was set at $50,000.