Sheriff Takes Over Investigation of Former Woodlands Wrestling Coach After AG Ruling
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office now leads the probe into grooming allegations against a former Conroe ISD coach. The district says it acted swiftly; families and a lawmaker want answers.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is now leading the criminal investigation into allegations that a former Conroe ISD wrestling coach groomed and sexually exploited female student-athletes. The case came to the sheriff only after the Texas Attorney General's Office determined that the school district's own police department did not have primary authority to investigate it.
No one has been charged. The allegations are unproven and have not been tested in court. The school district's police and the District Attorney's Office earlier reviewed the case and found no chargeable offense, according to the district. Now an outside agency is taking a second look.
What the sheriff says happened
In a statement published Oct. 7, the Sheriff's Office said it first learned of the allegations against the coach, whom it named as William Durning, in April 2026. At that time, it said, the Conroe ISD Police Department told the Sheriff's Office it would conduct the investigation with the District Attorney's Office and that the Sheriff's Office's help "was not needed."
On Sept. 23, the district's police department and the Conroe ISD superintendent asked the Sheriff's Office for an independent investigation. According to the statement, that request followed a determination by the Attorney General's Office about who holds primary investigative authority over child abuse allegations under Chapter 261 of the Texas Family Code. The Attorney General's Office "determined that Conroe ISD Police Department lacked primary jurisdiction to investigate the matter," the Sheriff's Office said.
Under Senate Bill 571, the Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit accepted the case and is reviewing all existing evidence and files, the statement said.
"Our Major Crimes Unit will ensure every aspect of this case is thoroughly evaluated, and any appropriate action under Texas law will be taken, we will ensure justice is served," Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said.
Families and a lawmaker push
Durning previously coached at The Woodlands High School and resigned after the allegations surfaced in April, KPRC 2 reported.
On Oct. 6, state Rep. Steve Toth joined families at a news conference calling for law enforcement to take over the case. According to Toth, multiple women have come forward, and KPRC reported that some accusers say the alleged conduct spans more than a decade. One father said his family first reported concerns to school officials in April, and that more women came forward after his daughter shared her experience publicly.
The Sheriff's Office said it was aware of the news conference but stressed that it had already received the investigative file on Sept. 23 and that "active investigative measures were already underway" before Toth spoke.
What the district says
Conroe ISD defended its handling in a statement published Oct. 6. The district said it learned of the allegations on April 27, 2026, and that same day removed Durning from campus, placed him on administrative leave, and reported the allegations to Child Protective Services and the Texas Education Agency's educator certification board. It said its police department began investigating immediately and notified the Sheriff's Office "as required by the interpretation of the law at that time." Durning is no longer employed by the district.
The district also said its detectives investigated, the District Attorney's Office reviewed the case, and "no chargeable offense was found to have occurred." After the Attorney General's opinion "provided clarification on the intent of Senate Bill 571," the district said, its police sent the entire case file to the District Attorney's Office the next day. The district is now referring questions to the Sheriff's Office.
The questions that remain
The two statements fit together on dates, but they tell the story with a different emphasis. The sheriff says the district told deputies in April that their help "was not needed." The district says it notified the sheriff as the law was then understood. Neither statement says what evidence led to the finding of no chargeable offense, and that finding came from the same institution that employed the coach. That is exactly why a second look by an outside agency matters.
The principle behind an outside investigation is simple. When an employee is accused, the employer has an interest in how the story is told. An independent investigator does not. That principle protects children, and it protects the accused as well, because a finding by an outside agency carries more weight in either direction.
Innocent until proven guilty, and children first
Two things are true at once. Durning is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and no one should treat an accusation as a verdict. And the young women who came forward deserve to be taken seriously by every adult and every agency whose job is to protect them. Scripture does not soften this: whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, Jesus said, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck (Matthew 18:6). Protecting children is not a political issue. It is a first duty.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Division at 936-760-5876 and reference case No. 26A327737.
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Hero photo: The Woodlands High School by WhisperToMe via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 public domain dedication, cropped and resized.
