Grand Junction High School’s athletic director, accused of engaging in sexual Internet chat with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, turned himself in at Mesa County Jail early Thursday.
Donald John Walker, 48, posted $25,000 bond and was released Thursday afternoon. Walker is on leave from his job, authorities said, and has not yet been charged.
The case against Walker is based on a civilian informant who claims to have posed as a child while the two chatted.
The alleged conversations came to light when TV station KKCO in Grand Junction received a packet with sexually explicit chat logs between Walker and the informant. The station then contacted police.
The informant used to be associated with NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” segment on “Dateline NBC.”
Walker told police he thought the person he was chatting with was an ex-girlfriend posing as a teenager, according to an arrest affidavit. Detectives contacted the ex- girlfriend, who told them she used only two online names.
On Monday, the ex- girlfriend agreed to allow police to tape a conversation between her and Walker; the affidavit says Walker knew his ex-girlfriend wasn’t the girl he was chatting with.
