CAMPBELL COUNTY, Tenn. — Content Warning: This story contains disturbing details about the incident behind the arrest.
The United States Marshals Service said a Campbell County High School teacher who was wanted on a charge of child sexual battery in Florida was arrested Tuesday on his way to school.
Christopher Michael Monaghan, 47, is from Speedwell and was wanted by the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida on one count of sexual battery on a child under 12, according to Marshals Service. The school system said Tuesday he was dismissed effectively immediately.
According to his arrest warrant from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida, Monaghan is accused of sexually battering a 7-year-old in Florida in June 2008. The Sheriff's Office learned about the alleged incident on Nov. 10, 2023, after the victim, now 21 years old, reported it to a deputy.
The victim went over graphic details about how Monaghan sexually touched them and told them to keep it a secret. The victim said they tried to tell someone about it several times while growing up but that "Monaghan always made up an excuse for what actually happened."
The victim said they confronted Monaghan about the incident in June 2023. They said they had to live with it their entire life and said Monaghan apologized to them.
The victim said they wanted Monaghan prosecuted criminally and to testify in court for the 2008 incident.
They said they last spoke to Monaghan on the phone in November 2023. On Nov. 30, the victim interviewed him over a controlled phone call. The arrest warrant contained a synopsis of the recorded phone conversation, which had the victim confronting Monaghan about details in the 2008 incident.
"He mentioned how the victim told him he should not be a teacher or a youth leader working with children, and Monaghan said he did not have attraction or desire for that," the synopsis said. "Monaghan said he did not remember ever making the victim touch him, but added 'that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.' Monaghan said he was remorseful for what happened in the past and wished it had never happened."
Monaghan later expressed concern over speaking about the incident over the phone and asked the victim to record a video proving they were alone, saying he had a friend who was "accused of doing something and got a phone call, similar to this situation." Monaghan said his friend was confronted in a similar way over a recorded phone call, and "every bit of the conversation was used against him."
He later went on to apologize multiple times, according to the summary. He then said if "the victim had told him 'No,' he would have stopped." The synopsis said he then likened the sexual battery incident to a theme park trip after the victim asked him if he did it because he thought it made the victim happy at the time.
"I kept doing it because I knew you liked it and it was something that made you happy," he said, according to the phone synopsis. "The reason we used to go to Disney so much is because you loved going to Disney."
The synopsis said Monaghan apologized again and expressed that he wished he could "re-wind the clock." He then assured the victim he had never touched another child like that.
U.S. marshals said Florida investigators worked with its Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force in Orlando to determine Monaghan's location. It was discovered that the 47-year-old was living in East Tennessee and working as a teacher.
Campbell County Schools Director Jennifer Fields said CCS dismissed Monaghan from his job immediately after the school system learned about his arrest on Dec. 19. She said he had been hired in August 2023 and that his background check came back clear from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. She said his name did not appear in the National Sex Offender Registry.
"On the morning of December 19, 2023, I learned through law enforcement of his arrest for the sexual battery of a 12-year old and the likely extradition to Florida relating to the charge. Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-2-301 and Board Policy 5.201, he was dismissed as a teacher and an employee, effective immediately," she said.
WBIR 10News obtained Monaghan's personnel file from CCS. According to the file, the school system hired him in August 2023 to teach STEM at CCHS.
His academic transcripts showed he studied at several colleges, including Valencia College and the University of Central Florida in 1994. He failed most of his courses at UCF. He later went back to college in 2018 and studied at Walters State Community College and the University of Tennessee before graduating with an associate degree in physics at Walters State in 2020 and a bachelor's degree in physics at UT in December 2022.
Before working at CCHS, his records showed he applied to teach seventh-grade science at LaFollette Middle School in the summer of 2023. Monaghan listed in his employment history that he previously worked as an adjunct instructor at Walters State Community College for nearly 3 1/2 years between 2020 and 2023 -- and listed that he specifically taught middle schoolers, kids in gifted and talented programs, and a kids summer college.
Walters State said Monaghan did not have any complaints filed against him during his time at the college.
He was also employed as a youth director for middle and high school students at Haynes Flat Baptist Church for 6 1/2 years, as well as a special education teaching assistant in Claiborne County for four months for third-, fourth- and seventh-grade children, according to his employment record.
Monaghan's file shows CCS reported him to the Tennessee Board of Education on Tuesday for being charged with a felony offense after initially suspending him without pay until the outcome of the investigation. CCS later said it had dismissed him as an employee and teacher from the school system.
Monaghan is at the Campbell County Jail and awaiting extradition to Florida, according to U.S. marshals.
The team that arrested Monaghan included U.S. Marshals, officers from Anderson County and Blount County as well as LaFollette Police Department officers.