AFTER THE BELL

Lindsey Anderson , El Paso Times Published 2:02 p.m. MT Jan. 23, 2017 | Updated 3 hours ago

In light of a delay in the trial of five educators accused of participating in the past El Paso Independent School District cheating scheme, a judge has postponed the sentencing of three former administrators who pleaded guilty to the scheme and may be called to testify against their colleagues.

Former EPISD Associate Superintendent Damon Murphy and ex-EPISD Priority Schools Division Directors Maria Flores and Vanessa Foreman are now scheduled to be sentenced July 11.

Flores and Foreman were originally scheduled to be sentenced in March and Murphy in April.

Flores and Foreman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States in June, and Murphy pleaded guilty to the same charge Jan. 6.

Their plea agreements say they may be called to testify at related court proceedings, such as the trial of five ex-EPISD administrators that's set for June. Their sentences could depend on the extent of their cooperation.

Former EPISD Assistant Superintendent James Anderson, former Austin High School Principal John Tanner and former Austin Assistant Principals Diane Thomas, Mark Tegmeyer and Nancy Love were originally scheduled to go to trial in February, but U.S. Senior District Judge David Briones recently pushed the trial back to June.

Anderson, Tanner and Tegmeyer are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and frauds and swindles. Anderson is also charged with lying to investigators, while Tanner and Tegmeyer are each facing a charge of retaliating against a witness or victim. Love and Thomas are both charged with retaliation, and Love is facing an additional charge of lying to a grand jury.

Lindsey Anderson , El Paso Times Published 9:57 a.m. MT June 3, 2016 | Updated 4:53 p.m. MT June 3, 2016

The trial for six people charged with participating in the El Paso Independent School District cheating scheme has been set for Aug. 15 in federal court.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks, Debra Kanof, senior litigation counsel in the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso, told Senior U.S. District Judge David Brioñes during a brief update on the case Friday morning.

Charged in the scheme are former EPISD Associate Superintendent Damon Murphy, former Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education James Anderson, former Austin High School Principal John Tanner, and former Austin Assistant Principals Diane Thomas, Mark Tegmeyer and Nancy Love.

Anderson, Murphy, Tanner and Tegmeyer are each charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and "frauds and swindles." If convicted, they face a possible 20-year prison sentence. Anderson is also charged with making false statements to a federal investigator, which could bring a five-year sentence.

Tanner, Tegmeyer, Thomas and Love are charged with conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Love is also charged with making a false declaration before a grand jury, which has a maximum five-year sentence.

The indictment alleges Murphy, Anderson, Tanner and Tegmeyer conspired with other employees to create a scheme to remove students from certain classes and then falsify records to show the students attended and passed the courses, in order to hide the fact that some EPISD schools were failing to meet state and federal accountability standards.

They also are accused of intimidating students into withdrawing or not re-enrolling in school to improve the EPISD's test scores. Tanner, Tegmeyer, Thomas and Love also are accused of conspiring to retaliate against someone for providing information to law enforcement.

Five of the defendants turned themselves in April 27. Anderson turned himself in a week later.

None of the six were present at the minutes-long docket call Friday, during which their defense attorneys and Kanof asked for the August trial date.

Kanof and the defense attorneys declined to speak to the news media after the hearing. Kanof also declined to say whether additional people will be charged in the case.

Only Tegmeyer and Love are currently employed with El Paso County school districts. Tegmeyer is on paid administrative leave as assistant principal of Horizon Middle School, but he has submitted his resignation, effective June 30, Clint Independent School District spokeswoman Laura Cade said.

Love, an assistant principal at Silva Health Magnet High School, has also submitted her resignation, effective June 30, EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez said. Until then, she is suspended with pay, Martinez said.

Meanwhile, a state investigation into the credentials of several current and former EPISD administrators is ongoing.

Murphy voluntarily surrendered his credentials in May 2014.

Thomas' education certificate was revoked in January 2015 when she failed to file a response to the petition the state filed against her, according to Texas Education Agency officials.

The credentials of Anderson, Tanner and Tegmeyer are under investigation. Credentials for an educator named "Nancy Beth Love" with an El Paso address are also under investigation, although Texas Education Agency officials couldn't confirm she is the same Nancy Love charged with retaliating against a witness and making false statements to a grand jury.

Lindsey Anderson may be reached at 546-6345; landerson@elpasotimes.com; @l_m_anderson on Twitter.

Adrianna Chavez , El Paso Times 11:41 a.m. MT May 3, 2016

Original publication date: June 13, 2012

Once one of the most powerful men in El Paso in control of a $460 million annual budget and 64,000 students, former El Paso Independent School District Superintendent Lorenzo García on Wednesday found himself in unfamiliar territory -- one in which he was no longer in control.

García appeared in front of a federal judge to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. One of the charges involves cheating on student test scores and the other deals with a $450,000 contract given to one of his lovers.

It was a strong contrast to a defiant García who had shrugged off accusations against him.

García, 57, entered the pleas before Senior U.S. District Court Judge David Briones, who will impose a sentence at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 14.

García pleaded guilty to defrauding the Texas Education Agency and the U.S. Department of Education by inflating state and federal accountability scores at different schools to secure federal No Child Left Behind funding and so that he could earn a performance bonus.

During the brief afternoon court hearing, García admitted to ordering district administrators "to do anything to make it look like scores were improving," including removing children from the 10th grade so they would not take the state-mandated TAKS tests.

When Briones asked García how he wanted to plead, García paused, looked down, looked back up and then down again. After Briones repeated his question, García began sniffling loudly and said, "Guilty."

In a charging document known as an information, García pleaded guilty to allegations that he defrauded the state and federal government by rigging student performance on standardized tests.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh first raised concerns in 2010 about alleged cheating in EPISD that prompted the audit and an FBI investigation. In response, García held rallies and publicly denounced Shapleigh's allegations as lies. The U.S. Attorney on Wednesday praised Shapleigh for raising the issue and El Paso District Attorney Jaime Esparza for helping with the investigation.

The federal information said García conspired with six unnamed unindicted co-conspirators "to artificially inflate the EPISD state and federal accountability scores for the purpose of causing the campuses in the EPISD Priority School Division (PSD) to appear to meet accountability, thus, to secure No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal funding."

García and the other conspirators "created the false demographics by improperly causing students to withdraw from school, discouraging students from enrolling in school, denying students entering EPISD from foreign countries to properly earn credits, improperly reclassifying students from the tenth grade to the ninth or eleventh grade by changing passing grades to failing and failing grades to passing and by deleting students' credits."

According to García's plea, he admitted that in order to achieve his contractual performance-based bonuses, he caused "material, fraudulent misrepresentations" of the district's Federal Adequate Yearly Progress reports to be submitted to the Texas Education Agency and the U.S. Department of Education in order to make it look as though the district was meeting and exceeding standards.

He also admitted to manipulating district data by implementing a reclassification program designed to evade 10th- grade testing and accountability requirements during the 2006-07 school year by directing others to reclassify student grade levels using partial course credits. He did so by requiring that all Mexican transfer students be placed in the ninth grade even if they had sufficient credits for the 10th grade, changing passing grades to failing grades to prevent students from taking the 10th-grade TAKS test, and implementing course credit recovery programs to help intentionally held-back students catch up before graduation.

García admitted that EPISD officials were working under his orders to do anything to improve the scores. But he said he did not tell them exactly what to do. That was left up to the other administrators who are only identified in the document as unindicted co-conspirators.

U.S. Attorney officials would not say if any of the six unnamed co-conspirators will charged or arrested. Federal officials would only say that the investigation is continuing.

Esparza said that he could not comment whether his office would prosecute any cases linked to García.

"We are assisting them (federal agencies) and there are still some investigations ongoing," Esparza said.

During Wednesday's hearing, García also admitted to scheming to defraud the EPISD by conspiring with his former lover, Tracy Rose, who owned Infinity Resources of Houston, to steer a no-bid contract to Rose's company.

García had been scheduled to go on trial June 18 on two counts of mail fraud, one count of theft or embezzlement concerning programs receiving federal funds, and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

During a status hearing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof said García became good friends with Luther Jones, who was convicted last year of conspiracy to get a multimillion-dollar digitization contract from the county, after García was hired as superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District in 2006.

Jones, who is serving a six-year sentence and is awaiting trial on other charges, drafted the contract concerning Rose.

On July 6, 2006, Rose signed an affidavit stating that her company was the sole-source provider of specialized data-driven materials for boosting student math scores in the state's standardized test. When a company is deemed as the sole provider for materials, it is able to bypass the competitive bid process normally required by school district.

She told prosecutors she valued her services at $100,000, and had initially asked for two payments of $50,000. She also said it was García who valued the contract at about $450,000, and in August 2006 she received two checks for $180,000 each from García's personal account before she ever signed a contract with EPISD.

Federal prosecutors said that in March 2007, after Rose tried repeatedly to end their relationship and became engaged to another man, García directed an EPISD administrator to terminate the contract. During a pretrial hearing last week, prosecutors alleged García had threatened Rose for seeing other men, but he had also been dating Pam Fierro.

Prosecutors also alleged during the hearing last week that García secured a job at the Canutillo Independent School District for Fierro with García's friend and former EPISD associate superintendent Damon Murphy, who is now the superintendent for Canutillo.

García was arrested in April 2011 after his indictment in the case connected to the sole source contract. He was then placed on administrative leave and resigned soon after.

His arrest restarted a federal audit that looked into allegations of cheating on state-mandated tests. When the investigation began, auditors looked at several high schools but seemed to hone in on Bowie and Coronado, conducting interviews at the South and West Side El Paso campuses and asking for records of students who left school or dropped out, had a change in grade or had transcripts from Mexico.

Auditors also asked about bonus pay for administrators.

García's attorneys, Ray Velarde and Jim Darnell, declined to comment following Wednesday's hearing. Under the plea agreement, García faces a prison sentence of 46 months, or almost four years, but Briones said during the hearing Wednesday that he will review the sentencing guidelines to determine whether García will serve more or less than the recommended sentence. García will also be ordered to pay $180,000 in restitution to EPISD.

He remains free on bond until his sentencing date.

In a news release, U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman thanked Shapleigh for "initially bringing this scheme to light," and Esparza "for his support and willingness to assist in the investigation and prosecution of other members of the conspiracy."

"(Wednesday's) guilty plea is the result of great dedication and tenacity not only by members of this office, but by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Education," Pitman said in the news release. "The defendant's abuse of his position of public trust by using taxpayer funds to advance a personal relationship, together with his manipulation of the education of disadvantaged students to achieve false results on test scores were shameful and he must now be held to account."

Adriana M. Chávez may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6117. Follow her on Twitter @AChavezEPTimes.