Administrators charged in EPISD cheating scandal out on bond, 1 transferred

Four of the five former El Paso Independent School District administrators charged in connection with the massive cheating scandal led by then-Superintendent Dr. Lorenzo Garcia are out on bond.

ABC-7 was there as FBI agents escorted former EPISD associate superintendent and Canutillo ISD superintendent Damon Murphy in handcuffs to the El Paso County Jail on Wednesday in Downtown El Paso.

ABC-7 confirms that the four others arrested are former Austin High School principal John Tanner, Diane Thomas, Mark Tegmeyer and Nancy Love. Thomas, Tegmeyer and Love are all former assistant principals at Austin, sources confirmed. Love is a current assistant principal at Silva Magnet High School, according to the school’s website. Sources say she had been removed in the last few weeks.

The name of former Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education James Anderson is redacted from the documents obtained by the ABC-7 I-Team. However, he is named by his position and appears to be the latest indicted in the ongoing investigation. ABC-7 checked with the county jail, and Anderson has not been arrested.

Murphy faces three counts. He’s charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a sentence of up to 5 years; mail fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 in prison; and mail fraud aiding and abetting, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. He was granted a $30,000 unsecured bond. Murphy qualifies for public defender. His travel is restricted between El Paso County and Dallas County.

Tanner was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; mail fraud; mail fraud aiding and abetting; and conspiracy to retaliate against a witness. He, too, was granted a $30,000 unsecured bond. Tanner currently works as an administrator at a nursing home in Olympia, Wash. His travel has been restricted between Washington state to El Paso County. The judge also ordered Tanner to surrender his passport.

Tegmeyer was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to commit mail fraud; mail fraud aiding and abetting; and conspiracy to retaliate against a witness. Tegmeyer is an assistant principal in the Clint Independent School District.

Thomas was charged with conspiracy to retaliate against a witness. She was granted a $20,000 unsecured bond. The judge requested that all firearms be removed from her home.

Love was charged with conspiracy to retaliate against a witness; and false declaration before a grand jury.

Murphy, Tanner, Tegmeyer and Love were released from jail after posting bond. Records state Thomas, was “released to another agency,” though ABC-7 has not been able to confirm which agency.

All five defendants face a fine of up to $250,000 for each count. They are expected in court at 1:30 p.m. May 2, and have been ordered to have no contact with potential witnesses, victims or co-defendants.

The purpose of the cheating scheme was to artificially inflate student test scores by improperly promoting students or holding them back, altering their transcripts, enrolling them in the wrong grade or forcing them to drop out altogether. District administrators would then receive bonuses when the district met state and federal standards due to the bogus scores.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, EPISD said it, “continues to cooperate with the FBI and other authorities as they proceed with their investigation into improprieties in student assessment by the previous administration.”

The district also issued statements of behalf of Superintendent Juan Cabrera and EPISD Board President Dori Fenenbock.

“Today’s actions by the FBI further places EPISD on a path to recovery after years of
uncertainty. We have and continue to work with the authorities to make sure that any wrongdoing that happened within the District is made right. I want to reassure parents that the EPISD of today is a District where ethics and strong moral character are the driving force toward student success. We will not stand for anything else than that, and anyone who is unwilling to follow these standards does not belong anywhere near our children,” Cabrera wrote.

Fenenbock said EPISD has worked hard to mend its relationship with the students, parents and taxpayers of the district.

“The actions today by the FBI allow us to further put this incident behind us. But it also allows us continue to have conversations amongst one another and with the public about how we can best deal with our unfortunate recent history. We will continue the great work our current administration and school staff are doing to improve student achievement in an ethical and appropriate manner,” Fenenbock wrote.

The cheating began at Bowie High School then it infected other schools.

The Texas Education Agency investigated Garcia twice and cleared him. The U.S. Department of Education also launched its own investigation.

In 2011, the FBI began looking into a $450,000 rigged contract at EPISD and the cheating scheme was uncovered. A year later, the district would commission a study, known as the Weaver Report, which detailed how pervasive Garcia’s system was.

Garcia was arrested in 2011 and pleaded guilty to defrauding the government in June of 2012. He also pleaded guilty to steering an expensive, no-bid district contract to his then-mistress. He served about two and a half years in prison and was released in October 2014.

One other administrator pleaded guilty.

A director in the district’s Secondary and Priority Schools Division, Myrna Gamboa, pleaded guilty to conspiring with Garcia to manipulate test scores and create false demographics to get federal funding. She was sentenced in January of 2015 to 5 years probation. She didn’t have to do community service or wear a monitoring device, but was ordered to pay a $5,000 dollar fine.

Her plea agreement mentioned Damon Murphy and James Anderson as alleged co-conspirators but they were not charged.

The school trustees whose lack of oversight allowed Garcia to operate illegally were removed by the state in 2013. Then-TEA Commissioner Michael Williams appointed a board made up of community leaders to steer the district out of the mess. They hired a new superintendent, Juan Cabrera, and oversaw the district until a new board was elected and took over the reins in 2015.

However, the FBI continued its investigation into Garcia’s co-conspirators.

The TEA also filed a petition to punish 11 educators allegedly involved in the EPISD cheating scandal. Those named in the petition were Damon Murphy, Terri Jordan, James Anderson, Maria Flores, Myrna Gamboa, Norma Regina Gonzalez aka Gina Oaxaca, Kathleen Ortega, Jesus Chavez, Anna Luisa Kell, Juan Manuel Duran, and Johnnie Vega.

Murphy, Gamboa, Jordan and Vega surrendered their certifications. Ortega was reprimanded in June 2015 by the State Board of Educator Certification but kept her certifications.