LAWRENCE — School officials were tipped off last year about suspicions that Frost School security officer and girls' basketball coach Tyrone Farrar, 30, was having an inappropriate relationship with a female student at the school.
Lawrence police and school officials investigated, but no charges were filed after Farrar, the girl and the girl's mother all denied the relationship was sexual.
But yesterday, Farrar, of 48 Kingston St., was ordered held without bail following his arraignment in Newburyport District Court on two counts of statutory rape involving a 14-year-old Lawrence girl.
Farrar was arrested early Saturday morning in Salisbury and charged with driving under the influence of drugs and a marked lanes violation.
The girl was in the car when police stopped it at 1:17 a.m. on Lafayette Road.
Police also seized a 9mm semiautomatic pistol from a backpack in the back seat of the car. Farrar was licensed to have the gun in his possession.
At the Salisbury police station, the girl told police she lied to her mother about staying at a friend's house so she could be with Farrar, police said.
According to the Salisbury police report filed in Newburyport District Court yesterday, both the girl and Farrar admitted under questioning to having had sex numerous times over the past year. Farrar even admitted to sneaking in through her bedroom window between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. to avoid detection by her family.
The girl told police she first kissed Farrar while in his van in Lawrence on July 15, 2009 when she was 13 years old, and that they had "full sex" as many as 35 times since August 2009.
She told police the last time they had sex was a little over two weeks ago on July 15 at the Knotty Pine Hotel in Salisbury, and that she remembered the date because she and Farrar looked upon the date as their anniversary.
She told police that when someone at her school thought they were getting too close, school officials and Lawrence police began investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct.
According to police reports filed in the case, the girl said she previously lied to the police because she did not want Farrar to be charged with statutory rape.
She told police they had sex in a variety of locations, including the Knotty Pine, the back of his van, and at a cottage on Atlantic Avenue in Salisbury, and on two occasions in her first-floor bedroom at her Lawrence home.
She told police Farrar told her he was sleeping on the couch at home and his marriage was not good.
Early Saturday morning they had gone to a motel in Salisbury that was closer to the beach, but that he only had $83 and the room was $85 and they left.
It was after they left there that police pulled Farrar's van over for erratic driving.
The girl told police that Farrar told her he had taken some pills for his back earlier and had a couple of beers before he picked her up.
She told police they were not going to have sex because she was angry at him over a nasty text message he had sent her, and that she was upset that he was still with his wife.
The girl told police that his wife must have suspected something because she received a text message from her Friday saying that if she kept it up "you'll end up in a hospital bed."
She told police she loved Farrar and he loved her, and that he was trying to save money so he could buy a house for them to live in.
She told Lawrence investigators Farrar was her basketball coach, and she looked upon him as a father figure.
When the girl's mother arrived at the Salisbury police station to pick up her daughter, she told police the girl had admitted to her that she had been having sex with Farrar.
Lawrence police Chief John Romero said yesterday that Lawrence detectives investigated Farrar after school officials received an anonymous letter alerting them to the situation.
"There was an issue with the same young lady where he was too friendly with her and the family," acting Lawrence School Superintendent Mary Lou Bergeron said yesterday in an interview with The Eagle-Tribune.
Bergeron said Farrar was hired as a school security officer in 2007 and was first assigned to the Frost School. She said she had Lawrence police investigate the rumors, which were denied by the family.
"My heart goes out to the young lady," Bergeron said.
"All parties were interviewed. He was transferred after the school department investigation and before police were notified," Romero said. "Once they received this letter, they contacted us."
Bergeron said she will hold a hearing with Farrar relative to the charges and make a decision along with the union representative of Teamster Local 170 on what the next step will be.
"I can't have him working with children under these charges," Bergeron said.
While Bergeron said Farrar is innocent until proven guilty, he will have to register as a sex offender if he is convicted, at which point he will not be employed by the Lawrence school system.
"I was thinking, 'No this can't be true.' I'm very disappointed after we've worked so hard to maintain healthy relationships and behavior between students and staff members. This is another black eye for the city that we don't need."
At his arraignment yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Maura Bailey asked that Farrar be held without bail pending a hearing Monday to determine whether he poses a danger to the community and should remain in jail pending his trial.
Judge Peter Doyle granted the request. Anthony Papoulias Jr., court-appointed lawyer for Farrar, agreed the prosecution probably has cause to ask that Farrar be held.
