Former Harris County deputy charged with sexually assaulting 13-year-old girl

Nicholas Burbridge, a former Harris County sheriff’s deputy, was charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl months after county records show he was fired from the agency. The case puts a child-sex allegation and a law-enforcement accountability question in the same file: what Harris County officials knew, when they knew it, and how a deputy who had served since 2020 was able to leave the force before the criminal case surfaced.

Court records say Burbridge communicated with the girl through a dating app and picked her up earlier this year. Documents also say he offered to buy her edibles. Burbridge, 34, was arrested Tuesday, and court records show he has since posted bonds totaling $165,000.

State records show the Harris County Sheriff’s Office fired Burbridge in March. The timing leaves a clear gap between his termination and the criminal charge, and it will likely fuel questions about whether supervisors saw warning signs before he left, whether any conduct reviews were opened, and what safeguards the agency had in place for off-duty behavior and contact with minors.

The case also carries consequences for public trust inside one of Texas’ largest sheriff’s offices. A former deputy accused of sexually assaulting a minor had held a badge in Harris County since 2020, a detail that makes the allegation more than a personal criminal case. It raises concerns about professional boundaries, training, and the agency’s ability to detect misconduct before it becomes a criminal matter.

Court records show Burbridge has a hearing on the misdemeanor charges in October, and no trial date has been set. Separate court documents say the arrest involved another incident in addition to the child-sex allegation, adding another layer to a case that now sits at the intersection of criminal prosecution and internal county oversight.