Crime & Safety
Officer Testifies: Accused Principal Wanted to Teach 13-Year-Old 'How to Be With a Man'
DeKalb County judge rules there's enough evidence to proceed in child sex case against elementary school principal John Harold McGill.
A DeKalb County Magistrate Court judge ruled there was enough evidence to move forward in the case of the Douglas County elementary school principal accused of seeking sex with a minor.
In testimony in front of Judge Richard Foxworth, an undercover officer told the court John Harold McGill, principal of Mt. Carmel Elementary School, was hoping to teach a 13-year-old girl “how to be with a man” when he was caught in a child sex sting operation earlier this month, the AJC reported. McGill, who has been suspended by the Douglas County School System, was one of 14 people arrested in the sting operation.
A member of the Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force who posed online as the mother of a 13-year-old told the court McGill answered a Craigslist ad, and subsequent emails and texts between the two led him to a Lithonia residence, where he was arrested.
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The officer, an Alpharetta Police detective, said McGill “had a condom in his possession.”
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McGill’s attorney Mac Pligrim argued the electronic exchanges between the principal and the officer were not admissible evidence and brought their accuracy into question, according to the AJC report. Pilgrim argued that typos were possible in the texts, and a photo sent to McGill depicting a mother and daughter was actually of two adult women. The supposed 13-year-old girl in the image was another undercover officer.
Pilgrim said his client never received a photo of a child, and never touched nor communicated with a minor.
McGill is out of jail on a $50,000 bond.
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