Arrest records say the allegations center on a 16-year-old junior firefighter in Howe and incidents reported to have happened in 2022.
HOWE, TX — Three North Texas firefighters have been arrested on child sex crime charges after investigators said a 16-year-old junior firefighter accused them of abusing her during her time with the Howe Volunteer Fire Department in 2022.
The arrests have shaken a small Grayson County community and drawn attention to how the allegations moved from a local police inquiry to a Texas Rangers investigation. Two men, David Perez-Glass and Dalton McCaslin, each face three counts of sexual assault of a child. A third, Joshua Ryals, faces two counts of indecency with a child involving sexual contact. The case also reaches beyond Howe because all three men worked at other North Texas departments before their arrests.
Authorities say the case began to take shape in May 2025, when Howe police learned of allegations involving members of the volunteer department. The city later said police brought in the Texas Rangers early so an outside agency could handle the criminal investigation. Arrest warrants signed in Grayson County show Perez-Glass was charged March 25 and McCaslin and Ryals were charged March 24, with all three men booked into the Grayson County Jail on March 26. According to charging documents, the alleged conduct dates to 2022 and, in Perez-Glass’s case, into early 2023. Howe officials said they moved quickly once they learned of the claims. “Upon learning of the allegations, there was immediate attention and response,” the city said in a statement released through Director of Public Safety Jake Sullivan.
Investigators said the accuser told them the abuse began while she was a junior firefighter and 16 years old. Court records cited by local news outlets say she accused Perez-Glass, 33, of assaulting her more than two dozen times between January 2022 and January 2023, including at the fire station and at another location in Van Alstyne. The same records say she described force, coercion and threats, including claims that he warned her not to tell anyone. Perez-Glass was charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child, and the warrant lists three separate felony allegations under Texas law. McCaslin was also charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child tied to an alleged encounter in December 2022. Ryals was charged with two counts of indecency with a child involving sexual contact over a period that records describe as spanning Jan. 6, 2022, to Jan. 5, 2023. Police have not publicly identified the accuser, and her name was redacted in affidavits reviewed by local outlets.
The records and station responses add more detail, but they also leave important questions unanswered. Investigators said McCaslin admitted he knew the girl was younger than 17 at the time of the alleged encounter. Reports on Ryals said the girl described sexual contact at the Howe fire station and that he later acknowledged what happened was wrong. A firefighter also told investigators, according to affidavit reporting, that she tried to raise concerns about Perez-Glass’s conduct toward the junior firefighter but was reprimanded for going outside the chain of command and later left the department. That claim points to a wider issue inside the department, though public records released so far do not show whether any supervisor is accused of a crime. It also remains unclear whether investigators are looking at possible failures in reporting, department oversight, or whether additional alleged victims may come forward.
The case has also pulled in several other fire agencies across North Texas because the three men held paid or volunteer jobs beyond Howe. The Texas Commission on Fire Protection listings cited in local reports say Perez-Glass most recently worked for the Irving Fire Department and had also served with Howe and briefly with Van Alstyne. McCaslin was working for the Allen Fire Department and had prior ties to Howe and Prosper. Ryals most recently worked for Melissa and previously served in Paris and Van Alstyne. Irving and Allen placed Perez-Glass and McCaslin on administrative leave after learning of the investigation, according to statements quoted by local media. Melissa said Ryals resigned before his arrest. The public attention grew sharper because Perez-Glass had been honored by Howe as Firefighter of the Year in 2022, and Ryals had recently been recognized by Melissa as Paramedic of the Year on March 16. In Howe, the city had also posted a fire chief opening in March after Chief Robert Maniet resigned in February for reasons that were not publicly explained.
The legal path now appears to be moving through Grayson County district court, where the arrest warrants were approved by Judge Brian K. Gary. The charging documents identify the felony counts but do not, by themselves, settle guilt or spell out a full prosecution timeline. Published reports said McCaslin and Ryals later posted bond, while Perez-Glass was still listed in jail at the time one affidavit-based account was published. Court settings, plea plans and trial dates had not been widely published in the reports reviewed for this story. Prosecutors also have not publicly laid out whether they expect to seek additional counts or present the case to a grand jury for indictment. For now, the criminal cases are in the early stage: charges have been filed, the accused men have been arrested, and investigators have said the inquiry remains active. That leaves several next steps still to come, including formal court appearances, evidence review and any motions filed by defense lawyers or the state.
In Howe, a city of a few thousand people near the Texas-Oklahoma line, the case has landed with unusual force because the allegations center on a department that serves as both a public safety institution and a source of local pride. City leaders stressed that no city employee was directly involved and that the allegations did not involve a patient. Even so, the case has raised difficult questions about trust, supervision and how a teenager in a junior program interacted with adult firefighters. The city said it could not release more detail because of the active criminal investigation and the privacy interests of those involved. Van Alstyne, where two of the men had previously worked, said both had left that department more than a year before the arrests and condemned any acts that harm children. Those official statements did not answer every question, but they showed how quickly the fallout spread beyond one station house.
As of Wednesday, the three men remained charged and the investigation was still being described publicly as active. The next milestone is expected to come in Grayson County court, where prosecutors and defense lawyers will begin setting the course for the cases.
Author note: Last updated 2026-04-02.