Aide accused of improper relationship with student

HOUSTON It happened near Katy, at Kingsland and Pin Oak. Investigators say one child at the center was victimized.

A Child Protective Services spokesperson says the incident is alleged to have occurred either inside the school or on the grounds of the charter school.

Clifford Hinton II is charged with having an improper relationship between an educator and student. Court documents indicate the then 24-year-old forced a 16-year-old girl to touch him inappropriately. Hinton was arrested last July and indicted in January. CPS, Katy police and the Ft. Bend Co. DA's Office investigated the case.

Hinton's attorney says his client was a teacher's aide at the Trinity Charter School at The Krause Center. It is no ordinary school - its website says many of the children have been removed from their homes because of extreme physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

His attorney says Hinton is innocent.

"It could not have happened and did not happen with respect to him," said attorney Lance Hamm.

Court records show Hinton was fired from the job in December. The school Thursday declined repeated requests for comment.

Hamm says that Hinton had heard that a girl at the school had a crush on him and that he followed procedure by filing a report about that with school officials. The attorney says Hinton at no time was alone with the girl.

Hinton is scheduled to appear in court in Fort Bend County on Friday. In addition to the allegation of having an improper relationship between educator and student, Hinton is accused of indecency with a child and soliciting a child for sex.