{"id":54702,"date":"2026-03-15T22:12:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=54702"},"modified":"2026-03-15T22:13:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:13:47","slug":"former-substitute-teacher-and-boyfriend-face-38-child-sex-charges-as-bond-nears-9-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=54702","title":{"rendered":"Former substitute teacher and boyfriend face 38 child sex charges as bond nears 9 million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A former Texas substitute teacher and her boyfriend are now facing a combined 38 child sex crime charges, with their bonds set at nearly $9 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Madison Paige Jones, a former substitute teacher in the Midlothian Independent School District, and her boyfriend Zackery Dondlinger were first arrested in December after Midlothian police launched an investigation into allegations involving a 5-year-old child who lived in Jones\u2019 home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Jones\u2019 bond was initially set at $90,000 and Dondlinger\u2019s initially reported at $250,000, but after the additional charges were filed earlier this month, their bonds increased dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Jones faces 13 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, one count of possession of child pornography, two counts of indecency with a child involving sexual contact and three counts of indecency with a child involving exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Dondlinger faces one count of sexual performance by a child under the age of 14, 13 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child involving sexual contact, three counts of indecency with a child involving exposure and one felony warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Dondlinger\u2019s bond is now set at $5 million, while Jones\u2019 bond stands at $3.8 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">NBC affiliate NewsChannel10 in Amarillo reported that court documents show Midlothian police were called to the home of a woman on Dec. 17 who identified herself as a friend of Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The woman told officers she was concerned about Dondlinger\u2019s behavior toward a 5-year-old child who lived in Jones\u2019 home. Jones and Dondlinger were in a relationship at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">According to the documents, Jones allegedly told investigators Dondlinger directed her to sexually assault the child and that she carried out the acts. The documents also state that Jones told authorities Dondlinger had sexual fantasies involving the child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Affidavits obtained by the station say Jones described the sexual acts to investigators and told police she recorded videos of the abuse and sent them to Dondlinger through Snapchat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Investigators later seized Jones\u2019 iPhone while executing a search warrant, and an affidavit reportedly states the phone contained a message from Dondlinger that supported Jones\u2019 account of acting at his direction. Authorities also seized an iPad from Jones, while two iPhones were taken from Dondlinger at the time of his arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Jones was first arrested Dec. 19 after police began investigating a report two days earlier of a potential child sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Detectives later identified Dondlinger, 37, as a second suspect in the case, and he was arrested Dec. 23 and charged with sexual performance by a child, according to the Midlothian Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Midlothian police previously told Fox News Digital that Jones and Dondlinger had been in a dating relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The Midlothian Independent School District said Jones is no longer employed by the district and confirmed she had worked as a substitute teacher on four occasions during the previous year. School officials also said they have no information suggesting the allegations are connected to Jones\u2019 work or occurred on school property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/former-substitute-teacher-boyfriend-face-38-child-sex-charges-bond-nears-9-million#&amp;_intcmp=fnhpriver_1\">Foxnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Texas substitute teacher and her boyfriend are now facing a combined 38 child sex crime charges, with their bonds set at nearly $9 million. Madison Paige Jones, a former substitute teacher in the Midlothian Independent School District, and her boyfriend Zackery Dondlinger were first arrested in December after Midlothian police launched an investigation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":54703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[36543,4085,5529],"class_list":["post-54702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-9-million","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-substitute-teacher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54704,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54702\/revisions\/54704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}