x
Breaking News
More () »

'You want to scream, cry.' Family finally sees ex-cop convicted for sex crime

"Frankly, I hadn't seen anything quite like this before from an officer," assistant DA Jeff Swain said.

WEATHERFORD — Justice finally arrived for one north Texas family in a Parker County courtroom last week.

It took nearly three years for Frank Carroll to face a jury.

It took that jury just over two hours to find the one-time cop from Springtown guilty of indecency with a child.

Watching from the gallery was the teenage victim's family.

That victim's mother agreed to talk to WFAA, as long as her name wasn't publicized.

"It has been three year since this came out, but it's five years since my daughter has been dealing with this," said the woman.

The teen was just 14 when she first met Carroll in the halls of Springtown High School.

He was the school resource officer then, and prosecutors laid out a case of how he took a liking to the young teen.

"He was always following up on her, pulling her out of class," said mom. "I never thought anything other than he was doing his job."

Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain said eventually Carroll started kissing, touching, and molesting the girl. He said it happened at school.

But none of it surfaced until two years later in late 2015, before Carroll was indicted in early 2016.

"It has been very long," the mom said about the case's progression.

The family expressed similar frustration when they first talked to WFAA months ago.

She said she is thankful prosecutors got a quick verdict last week, but even more thankful that other women bravely came forward during the trial's sentencing phase.

"I hadn't known the testimony of the other five women," she said.

Swain says Carroll touched and forced himself on another teen girl at the school, attempted to blackmail another, and also exposed himself to a woman who worked at a store in Springtown.

"While in uniform, he went into a store and started masturbating in front of an employee," said Swain.

The woman reported that incident to Carroll's superiors at the department but no charges were ever brought.

Had it not been for the outcry and persistence of one daughter and mother team, who knows if Carroll would ever have been found guilty of anything.

"Who would think a police officer would do something like that," said the mom. "You want to scream, cry, do all of these [...] But you hold your head up high and move forward."

Carroll was sentenced to a dozen years in state prison.

Swain said he will be eligible for parole in half that time.

He denied all of the allegations during trial, even testifying in his own defense.

Before You Leave, Check This Out