Vero Beach man pleads not guilty to charges of having sex with underage girl

VERO BEACH, Fla. - A St. Edward’s Upper School theater technical director is pleading not guilty to charges he had sex with a 16-year-old female student multiple times in the school’s theater this year, court records show.

Donald Irvin III, 32, of the 1200 block of Club Drive, is being held in the Indian River County Jail under a $100,000 bail on two charges of sexual battery of an underage youth. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

He was arrested at the private school on June 17 and on June 22 his assistant public defender filed a not guilty plea and asked for a jury trial.

At the same time, sheriff’s investigators continue looking into the case and have seized his laptop computer and cell phone from a locker at the school on State Road A1A.

Previously obtained cell phone records in court files quote Irvin as saying, “So what’s on your mind,” to which she replied, “Nothing but you.”

Irvin allegedly had consensual intercourse with the student about five times — all at the school’s theater, the Waxlax Center.

The first was after an evening theatrical show on May 7 when investigative reports state they were intimate in a storage room in a back stage area. It allegedly started with Irvin joking about sex.

The court records indicate that the youth wasn’t sure about the dates of the other encounters, except for the last being on June 3.

The charges stem from the girl’s parents turning to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office after seeing possibly inappropriate text messages investigators say were between the girl and Irvin, Sheriff’s Detective Jeremy Shepherd said.

State records show this if the first time Irvin had been charged with a crime in Florida.

Irvin’s job at the school included handling lights and sound at the school’s theater. In that role, he worked with students but was not a classroom teacher, Shepherd said.