A former Magnolia police officer accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl was captured in Minden, Louisiana, on August 11, where investigators say he had been working as a school bus monitor. Brandon Muse, 44, had quietly surrendered his Texas peace officer license years earlier following an unrelated investigation that never became public, and in the years since he moved through jobs that put him around children, including stints at a Texas school district and a church youth ministry.
According to KTRK-TV, investigators accuse Muse of sexually assaulting the girl in Montgomery County three years earlier, with the alleged victim described by investigators as a family friend. The alleged crime occurred after Muse had already left the Magnolia Police Department, where he resigned in 2020 amid a separate, unrelated investigation by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. That investigation concluded before Muse resigned and surrendered his license, and Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records confirm both the resignation and the surrender, the station's report notes.
Detectives with the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable's Office opened their criminal investigation into Muse after Child Protective Services referred a report in May regarding alleged child sexual abuse involving a 14-year-old victim, according to a Facebook post from Cameras Protect. Muse was ultimately arrested pursuant to an out-of-state felony warrant issued by Montgomery County authorities, according to the same post.
What the 2020 Investigation Never Revealed
Kyle Montgomery told the outlet that the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office would not tell him why it was investigating Muse back in 2020, and the DA's office would not confirm the investigation or whether surrendering the license was part of any deal. The Magnolia Police Department did not conduct an internal investigation of its own because the DA's office did not share enough information, per the same account. Muse's personnel file at the department reportedly contains no mention of any internal investigation — only a written reprimand from 2019 for arriving four hours late to work.
A TCOLE board member said a prosecuting authority may negotiate with a licensee facing criminal proceedings to surrender a peace officer's license as part of a plea agreement, a provision spelled out under Title 37, Section 223.13 of the Texas Administrative Code. Once a license is surrendered, state hiring rules bar the holder from ever returning to a peace officer appointment in Texas, according to guidance published by the University of Texas System Police.
A Familiar Pattern in Houston-Area Cases
Houston defense attorney Murray Newman said prosecutors face unique challenges when charging police officers, and that convicting an officer is difficult because many people are strongly pro-police. He said such deals appear to treat law enforcement officers better than other citizens charged with the same crime, adding that he had never heard of a non-officer being allowed to give up a career in order to avoid prosecution. Newman noted license surrender deals are not entirely common or uncommon in Texas.
The pattern echoed a more recent case: former Pasadena Police Sergeant Michael Palitz surrendered his TCOLE license this month in an agreement with prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution, following an internal investigation into misuse of the department's Flock camera system to track a female officer, according to Click2Houston. The Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed Palitz would not be prosecuted in exchange for surrendering his license. Since September 2025, TCOLE has adopted updated rules allowing mandatory license revocation for officers convicted of, or placed on community supervision for, offenses against vulnerable populations or official misconduct — a tightening that came after cases like Muse's had already played out.
From Bus Driver to Children's Ministry Leader
After leaving the police department, Muse worked as a bus driver for Magnolia Independent School District, and district records show he was employed there from March 2023 through April 2024. Magnolia ISD policy requires all prospective employees, bus drivers, contractors, and volunteers to pass criminal history background checks before beginning service, though it remains an open question what information, if any, surfaced about Muse's license surrender during that vetting process.
Beyond the school district, Muse ran an entire children's ministry at Grand Central Church in Conroe, where a pastor described his ability to multitask as excellent. A church member said Muse and his wife watched the member's children from time to time and were trusted implicitly. Church staff and congregants reportedly served as references for Muse in his employment application. At the time of his arrest, Muse was working as a bus monitor in Louisiana, according to the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable's Office.
The case adds to a string of recent child exploitation matters handled by Montgomery County's Precinct 3 Constable's Office, whose Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Unit completed a multi-agency operation in July that resulted in 61 arrests and 28 rescued victims. It also follows a separate case this month in which a former Magnolia ISD educator was indicted on two new felony charges in Montgomery County court, underscoring heightened scrutiny of how the district vets the adults who work around its students.
