Charges dismissed against 2 former Socorro ISD trustees, board member’s wife
by Robert Moore
February 5, 2026
Sign up for essential news about El Paso. Delivered to your inbox — completely free.
Charges against two former Socorro Independent School District trustees, and the wife of one of the school board members, have been dismissed after prosecutors agreed the indictments failed to state an offense under state law.
Then-trustees Pablo Barrera and Ricardo Castellano were indicted in May 2024, along with Castellano’s wife, Gabriela, a teacher in the district. The indictments alleged they harmed or threatened to harm school employees with whom they had disagreements.
Mary Stillinger, the attorney for the two trustees, said the prosecution smacked of a political vendetta.
“In this case, even if you took everything that everybody said as true, all the bad things, even if you took all them as true, which I’m not saying that they are all true, I think they were maligned largely for political reasons … it still wasn’t criminal. It didn’t rise to the level of a criminal case,” she said.
The charges came after El Paso Matters published details of a 2021 recording of the three defendants discussing how to punish Gabriela Castellano’s principal. Gabriela Castellano had uploaded the extensive recording to a district server, and El Paso Matters obtained the recording under Texas open records laws after a lengthy battle with the district.
Gabriela Castellano said she wouldn’t discuss the dismissal of the charges with El Paso Matters. “You are a biased political operation who destroyed people’s lives and livelihoods, including ours,” she said.
In a series of motions over the past two weeks, defense lawyers asked that the charges be dropped because the indictments “fail to state an offense” under Texas law. The District Attorney’s Office did not oppose the motions, and 171st District Court Judge Bonnie Rangel dismissed the charges in a series of hearings.
“Because the indictment does not specify any conduct that would constitute ‘harm’ or ‘threatening to harm’ and instead specifies conduct that is not criminal, the indictment should be quashed,” Gabriela Castellano’s attorney, Felix Valenzuela, said in a Jan. 26 motion.
The indictments accused the three defendants of “exerting undue influence” on school district employees, but that is not an allegation of actual harm to someone else as required by the statutes they were charged under, defense lawyers Valenzuela and Mary Stillinger wrote in the motions.
In a statement to El Paso Matters, District Attorney James Montoya said the indictments were handed up during the tenure of former District Attorney Bill Hicks, whom Montoya defeated in the November 2024 election.
“However, after a comprehensive analysis of the relevant statutes and appellate court precedent, it became clear that there were multiple constitutional and statutory infirmities with the indictments as drafted. Moreover, these were defects that could not be cured as the evidence does not clearly establish that the defendants’ behavior arose to the level of criminal misconduct. As a result, we were unable to oppose the defendants’ motions to quash in good faith,” Montoya said.
“Our office remains committed to upholding the highest standards of justice and integrity and pursues cases only when the evidence supports a reasonable likelihood of proving the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt at a criminal trial,” he said.
Hicks said the case was handled by an experienced prosecutor, Erin Delaney Matney, who was the chief of the white collar crime unit.
“This surprises and disappoints me. Although I will say that a prosecutor’s understanding of the evidence and the law is always developing as time goes on, but as of my last briefing on this matter, now well over a year ago, those cases were strong and well founded,” he said in a statement to El Paso Matters.
“I believe that the Socorro ISD police and the Texas Rangers had done a good job with their investigations and the evidence was more than sufficient to sustain convictions,” Hicks said. “However, as I mentioned, a prosecutor’s understanding of the facts and evidence can change over time. I have not talked with the Chief of that unit and do not know if her opinion of the trial worthiness of the cases has changed. I’m sure that DA Montoya believes he is doing justice in his actions.”
The indictments against Ricardo Castellano alleging obstruction or retaliation were dismissed Jan. 24.
The indictments against Barrera – charging him with obstruction or retaliation, official oppression, retaliation and coercion of a public servant – were dismissed Jan. 26.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Rangel dismissed charges of obstruction or retaliation against Gabriela Castellano.
Barrera and Ricardo Castellano stopped attending board meetings after they were indicted, and did not run for reelection last year.
Gabriela Castellano no longer works at Socorro ISD, and state records show that her educator certification is under review by the Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division.
