AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A former Aurora school resource officer who was convicted for sending inappropriate text messages to a student is facing more legal troubles.
The teenage victim and her family are now suing Egide Ndagije, the former officer, and the Aurora Police Department for negligence, violation of constitutional rights, and emotional distress.
Ndagije accepted a plea deal and was criminally convicted, pleading guilty to official misconduct, for sending sexually charged text messages. He was sentenced to probation, community service, and can never serve as a police officer in the state of Colorado.
Now that the criminal process has played out in court, a 31-page civil complaint was filed in Arapahoe County District Court his week claiming Ndagije ”groomed’ and ‘sexually exploited’ a then 16-year-old student.
The complaint goes on to state that the Aurora Police Department ”failed to properly vet, train, and supervise the officer’.”
Attorney Matthew Haltzman has represented the victim since the 2023 incident that FOX31 first reported last year.
“My client and her family want this department and this officer to be held accountable,” Haltzman told FOX31.
At the time Ndagije was a SRO at Aurora Central High School and exchanged cell phone numbers with the victim who reached out for help. Brazen text messages show the former officer asking the 16-year-old about sexual encounters and experiences and questioning her about her underwear, among other inappropriate things.
“His level of comfort to text a 16-year-old the sort of things that he did is disturbing and the fact that he’s a member of law enforcement and knows all of the consequences of his decision to do that, that’s scary,” Haltzman explained.
The victim felt uncomfortable about the text messages and shared them with her parents who then reported the incident to police. Ndagije was placed on leave and an internal affairs and CBI investigation was conducted. The investigation ultimately lead to criminal charges being filed against Ndagije.
The former SRO resigned during the internal investigation. Aurora police told FOX31 in a statment if he did not resign, Ndagije would have been terminated.
“This is a text book example of lack of supervision,” Haltzman said. “This is an officer with very little training, and no one is really checking in or making sure he’s engaging inappropriate behavior. We know that because all this behavior happened right under APD’s nose”.
He goes on to say the victim still suffers nearly two years removed from the incident. She was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and is in therapy.
Haltzman said the red flags were glaring. The former SRO graduated from Aurora Central High School himself, was in his 20’s, brought young girls into his office alone, used a police database to look-up personal information about the victim and her family members, and took pictures of female students on his cell phone.
“Had anybody at APD in a supervisory position just taken time to come by the school and check in on things, to see what was going on, they would’ve seen that something very wrong was happening here and that didn’t happen,” Haltzman said.
Ndagije’s POST certification was revoked by the state. APD told FOX31 they notified the Attorney General’s Office to decertify him, but can’t comment on pending litigation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
