25-year-old Who Posed as Teen, Enrolled At Hillcrest Faces Indecency Charge
A charge has been added to the ledger of 25-year-old Sidney Bouvier Gilstrap-Portley, who was charged in May with tampering with government records after enrolling at Dallas’ Hillcrest High School as a 17-year-old.
Gilstrap-Portley was arrested again last week and charged with indecency with a child, a second-degree felony. The arrest stems from evidence that Gilstrap-Portley dated and inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl while enrolled at Hillcrest.
The arrest affidavit says Gilstrap-Portley “touched the girl’s breasts over her clothing” and “asked the girl to have sex.” The affidavit says the girl declined having sex with the suspect.
Gilstrap-Portley and the girl hung out several times, according to the affidavit. After chatting initially on Snapchat, the two began spending time together at school and talking on the phone. They also had lunch together and went to a local park.
The mother of the Gilstrap-Portley’s child told police that she knew he was enrolled at Hillcrest and pretending to be a student. However, she was “unaware” that he had begun a relationship with a 14-year-old.
Gilstrap-Portley is out on bail.
Originally a 2011 graduate of North Mesquite High School, Gilstrap-Portley enrolled at Hillcrest after claiming to be homeless and a survivor of Hurricane Harvey, police said.
Dallas ISD has a policy – backed by a federal law, according to district officials – that requires school districts to immediately enroll homeless students that wish to attend school. Those students do not immediately need the necessary identification required of other would-be students.
With Gilstrap-Portley claiming to be homeless, the district enrolled him. By November, he was registered as a full-time student at Hillcrest under the name Rashun Richardson and began playing for the varsity basketball team.
He starred on the court, averaging nearly 20 points per game. But it was basketball that ultimately ended Gilstrap-Portley’s ruse, as a former coach at North Mesquite recognized him at a game between the two teams.
Several of his former teammates at Hillcrest have recently spoken up, telling police they figured Gilstrap-Portley “was just big for his age” and that he was “polite, quiet, and focused on basketball.”
