A former Lewisville police detective who worked in the Crimes Against Persons division is in jail, accused of eight counts of sexual assault of a child.
Jail records show Bryan Preston Gibbins, of Denton, is behind bars in the Denton County Jail where he's being held on $4 million bond, or $500,000 for each of the eight charges against him.
Lewisville police confirm Gibbins was a 12-year veteran of their department who was fired last summer following an investigation into an off-duty incident.
"That investigation documented multiple policy violations - including attempts to deceive the investigators - that resulted in his termination," Lewisville police said.
Lewisville police said that when the department learned of possible criminal activity related to the incident, Police Chief Kevin Deaver asked the Denton County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the matter.
“For transparency, it is important to have a neutral law enforcement agency look into criminal allegations when an employee or former employee is involved,” Deaver said.
"It is important for the public to know that, if these allegations are true, they do not reflect the vast majority of the fine men and women who honorably serve this community on a daily basis," Deaver added.
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Investigators have not yet released an arrest warrant affidavit in the case.
Gibbins was assigned to the department's Crimes Against Persons Section of the Criminal Investigations Division before being fired. In March 2019, he was named First Responder of the Month by the Lewisville Chamber.
In June 2019, Gibbins was the investigating officer in the Lauren Kavanaugh child sex assault case. Kavanaugh, who is now in her 20s, was accused of sexual assault of a child for a relationship she reportedly had with a teenage girl. In the arrest warrant affidavit, as reported on by The Denton Record Chronicle, he said he interviewed the teen victim as well as Kavanaugh while investigating the allegation of assault.
Kavanaugh, a victim of extreme abuse herself, was starved, locked in a closet and sexually abused by her mother and stepfather inside their Hutchins trailer in 2001. The story of what she endured was part of an eight-part series published by The Dallas Morning News in 2013.
Gibbins was employed with the Lewisville Police Department from Dec. 1, 2006 until July 16, 2019.
Check back for updates on this breaking news story. NBC 5's Don Peritz contributed to this report.
