Arrested Mountain Range HS admin. intended to send nude photos to woman: Affidavit

WESTMINSTER, Colo. – A Mountain Range High School administrator accused of sending inappropriate photos to an underage student claimed the photos were intended to be sent to his wife, according to an arrest affidavit unsealed Tuesday in the case.

Tate Drane, 27, was arrested by Westminster police on Monday on suspicion of inappropriate conduct with a child.

Arrest documents show Drane began sending photos of himself in various states of undress to an underage girl who was at a friend’s house for a slumber party on Saturday night.

The girl, who received more than a dozen photos on Snapchat, told police the messages included not only inappropriate photos but also lecherous texts from Tate, who she identified as a former gym teacher of hers when she was in high school in 2021 .

Drane, who most recently worked at Mountain Range High School as dean of students, also coached football at Thornton High School and girls basketball at Mountain Range High School, according to the affidavit.

The girl told police she first met Drane when he was in sixth grade, back when he was teaching gym. For the next two years, the girl would become Drane’s assistant.

During that time, according to the affidavit, Drane eventually asked the girl if she would be willing to babysit him and exchanged phone numbers, but realizing this was “too risky,” Drane and the girl “decided to use Snapchat to talk’. the statement says.

The girl reportedly told Drane that she would be willing to babysit him if another friend of hers could join her in the effort, but Dane told the girl, “It should be up to her, no one should be home and they should.” entered a room, but no one could go with them,” the affidavit said.

In statements to police, the girl also told investigators that during the time she was his assistant, Drane asked her to help him store items in an equipment room.

“Once inside, (redacted) said Tate grabbed her butt, wouldn’t let go and asked (redacted) how it felt,” the affidavit said.

The girl told police that the incident made her feel very uncomfortable, but did not report it at the time.

Arrest documents show the victim began receiving more inappropriate messages via Snapchat, in which Drane requested photos of her and asked her to meet up in the evening. Some of those messages were comments about Drane being near her house or walking by her house, but the girl told police she never gave Drane her address and likely got that information from the school’s records.

“At one point, Tate told (redacted) not to tell anyone about them or their conversations. He said if she told anyone (redacted) to go to ‘Juvi’ he would go to jail and she would ruin his life because he has children and a wife,” the affidavit said.

Mountain range HS admin. allegedly sent ‘inappropriate photos’ to student

Detectives speak with the suspect

On Monday afternoon, Westminster Police investigators went to Drane’s home in Lupton, where they met his wife, who told them he was with their daughter at a doctor’s appointment.

Once he got home and police spoke to him, Drane claims that after a date with his wife on Saturday, he received a Snapchat message that read, “something along the lines of ‘come home.’ He told police he initially thought this was in response to a lascivious message he had sent her earlier, before sending “a few ‘dumb pictures’.”

The affidavit states that Drane told police he believed he sent these photos to the Snapchat account he previously commented on, but claimed he then “received threatening Snapchat messages from a group of girls saying they wanted to call 911 would call’.

Drane was later notified that his “Snapchat account had been changed and discovered…messages he had sent were in fact sent to (redacted),” according to the arrest documents.

During his interview with police, Drane told investigators that he and the victim “kept in touch more than he should have,” adding that he had discussed with his wife going to police to file a report about ” his Snapchat account’. being taken over and the threatening messages he received after sending Snapchat messages to the wrong account.

When questioned by police about how he learned that the messages he sent were in fact sent to his former student, Tate “couldn’t explain it,” the affidavit states.

After further questioning by police, Drane admitted that “he had in fact intended to send the nude photographs of himself to (redacted) and to (his wife).”

Drane was also questioned about the incident where he allegedly touched the girl’s buttocks in an equipment room, but Drane denied that this did not happen and that “there should never have been any time alone with us.”

He was subsequently arrested and booked into the Adams County Jail.

He faces several charges, including sexual assault of a child by someone in a position of trust – victim under the age of 15 or pattern of abuse, sexual exploitation of a child via the Internet – observing the victim’s intimate parts, and luring a child via the internet.