Teacher’s case prompts search for young sex assault victims

Jen Lawson

Thursday, June 17, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

Metro Police are asking possible sexual assault victims to step forward after a 14-year-old girl told Clark County School District Police that she and a substitute teacher met at Grant Sawyer Middle School last month to have sex.

Cornelius Ausborne, 29, was arrested Monday on two counts of sexual assault of a minor 14 or under, sexual misconduct with a student and related offenses.

He admitted to fondling the 14-year-old in his classroom and having sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl at her home, according to the police report.

Police believe there may be more victims.

"We're going on the assumption that there may be other girls that were approached and they said no," said Lt. Jeff Carlson of Metro's sexual assault section, or other victims who haven't come forward yet.

Ausborne, a former University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball player, graduated from UNLV in 1998 with a communications degree. A guard, he abruptly left the team halfway through his senior year amid disagreements about his play time.

He was hired by the Clark County School District as a substitute teacher in 2002. As with all teachers, district officials checked an FBI database to determine if he had a criminal record.

The check was clean, said George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the school district.

Carlson also confirmed there was nothing in his background indicating this type of behavior was a pattern for Ausborne.

"When someone is accused of something of this nature, everyone is just appalled," Rice said "Everyone has their day in court, but this just stuns us all."

In the past three years, 16 Clark County School District employees have been arrested and charged with sex-related offenses, ranging from possession of child pornography to molestation and rape.

None of those individuals had criminal records at the time they were hired, Rice said.

Ausborne was fired after school administrators were informed of the charges on May 5.

According to a School District Police report, Ausborne gave a 14-year-old student his cell phone number and phone records show they exchanged numerous calls over the next few days.

Their conversations turned sexual, the report says, and they discussed having the girl meet him in his classroom on May 3 to have sex.

The girl said she did go to the classroom and Ausborne tried to have intercourse with her, according to the report. Ausborne initially denied that the incident took place, telling police there would be no reason for DNA to be found in the classroom, the report says, then he said he sometimes touches himself while looking at pornography during his lunch break.

In a later interview with police he admitted to the sexual encounter with the girl in the classroom.

While investigating this case, police uncovered an earlier alleged sexual encounter involving Ausborne and a 13-year-old girl.

The girl, who is now 14, told Metro Police that Ausborne was her substitute teacher for English class and choir in 2003 when she was in seventh grade. They would engage in casual conversation in the hallways, the report says.

The following school year, when she was in eighth grade, he asked her to come to his classroom after lunch. He asked her sexual questions described in the police report as "very explicit."

She told police she "felt weird" about their conversation, but they exchanged phone numbers and in March or April he went over to her house. Both she and Ausborne said they just talked, but the second time they had sex in her bedroom, the report says.

"She said it was his idea ... and that 'She really did not want to do it,' " the report says. "She said he did not use a condom."

As he left her house, the report alleges, he told her not to tell anyone about what had happened.

Ausborne denied having a relationship with the girl. He said he knew her as one of the "troubled" students in the school -- a girl who fights with other girls -- but knew nothing else about her, according to the report. He later admitted to the alleged abuse and was arrested.

Anyone with information about Ausborne and other possible incidents involving him are asked to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or Metro detectives at 229-3421 or 491-4441.