Jan 13, 2007 - Aleyda Mendez Garza, a third-grade bilingual teacher at Jane Long Elementary School, was arrested and is being held on $75,000 bond. She was indicted on six counts of tampering with a government record.
Also indicted was Nancy Mendez, a aide to Garza, for on one count of theft, 10 counts of tampering with a government record and 10 counts of bribery.
GARCIA ARRESTED Both Mendez and Garza were employees of Rosa Maria Garcia, the executive director of Brazosport (ISD - Independent school district) special programs division. Garcia was arrested Dec. 8 on a charge of theft by a public servant. She was released the same day after posting $10,000 bond.
Mendez originally reported the allegations about her supervisor’s behavior to police. The money from the voucher was to be used to pay the attorney’s fees for a convicted felon working for the district, court documents state.Special programs is a department that oversees different federal programs including English as a Second Language, bilingual education and migrant education.
GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING April 5, 2008 - Rosa Maria Garcia was sentenced to 6 years in prison (six years on each of 10 bribery counts and probation for all eight theft counts. The bribery sentences to run concurrently)
Garcia pleaded guilty to bribery and theft by a public servant in January. As part of her sentence, Garcia received 10 years probation, which will start when she is released from prison, and must pay $42,679 in restitution. She will have to serve about a year and a half before being considered for parole.
During the internal district investigation, some teachers admitted Garcia helped obtain forged teacher certification for them from Mexico that could not be verified.Garcia had been convicted in 1972 of felony theft of El Paso County funds.
