Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022 | 6:57 p.m.
David Pendley
A former teacher at Faith Lutheran Middle School and High School was arrested Monday after a female graduate of the school told police he groomed and sexually assaulted her while she was an underage student.
David Pendley was booked on half a dozen charges of sexual conduct between a school employee and a pupil, according to court records.
The accuser was a senior at the private school in Summerlin in 2018 when Pendley allegedly approached her about mentoring one of his students. He then invited her to attend a mission trip with him and his students to Mexico, according to a Metro Police report. During the trip, the student said she thought of him as a “father figure,” which Pendley told her was a mutual feeling.
After the trip, Pendley hugged her and told her he loved her. She tried to pull away a couple of times before he let her go, according to the report. Within a few days, she received a text from him asking for a picture of her face. She reluctantly complied, after initially declining his request, the student told police.
He complimented multiple aspects of her appearance, including her breasts, and the pair continued texting, according to the report.
Pendley eventually invited the student to his home to dog sit while he and his wife were going to be on vacation, but when she came over to meet his wife, she was not there. Pendley engaged the student in various sexual acts at his home before she said she wanted to leave, and he let her go.
Over a span of about six months, he continued to engage in sexual conduct with the student, including on messaging apps, at his home and on the Faith Lutheran campus, according to the report. In one instance, Pendley was coaching a track meet when he asked the student to pick him up from the event and he kissed her after she said she had never kissed a boy and was not comfortable kissing him, the report said.
The student told police that Pendley would get mad if she said she did not like something he was doing, and that the sexual activity often caused her physical pain. She told police he never engaged in explicit sexual intercourse with her because “that would mean he was cheating on his wife,” according to the arrest report.
The student told Pendley multiple times she was uncomfortable and thought his behavior was wrong because he was married, as well as the possibility of the school finding out. Pendley told her he planned on divorcing his wife and that he wanted to have a child with the student, according to the report.
He also told the student no one would find out about their relationship unless she told someone and that no one would believe her if she did because “everyone likes him,” and he knew how to make people believe him, the report said. Pendley told her he was sexual with her because his heart was connected to his genitals, and “God made him that way,” according to the report.
It is unclear when the relationship officially ended, but Pendley told the student they had to stop talking at the end of the academic year in 2018 because he was being questioned by school administration about an unrelated incident, according to the arrest report.
Faith Lutheran said the student returned to the school in December 2021 to report Pendley. She brought the case to police around the same time, according to the arrest report.
Pendley has not been employed with Faith Lutheran for several years, the school said, and left due to unrelated circumstances. The school has fully cooperated with the investigation, it said in the email.
“Faith Lutheran takes every allegation seriously, and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for our students,” the school said in a statement. “We will continue to cooperate with this investigation and provide support to our former student.”
Pendley was fired from Faith Lutheran in 2020 for consuming alcohol on school premises, according to the arrest report.
He faces six charges of a school employee in a position of authority, aged 21 or older, engaging in sexual conduct with a pupil, aged 16 or older, according to court records.
