A former Pace High School teacher and coach has been sentenced to three years deferred adjudication after pleading guilty to one count of improper relationship between educator and student.
Sergio Alan Sandoval appeared Tuesday morning before 197th state District Court Judge Adolfo E. Cordova Jr. where the judge said he didn’t agree with the plea between Sandoval’s attorney and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office – which was two years adjudication- and added an additional year.
“She was a student when the acts occurred,” Cordova said.
According to a Cameron County indictment, the incident occurred April 1, 2018, where Sandoval engaged in sexual contact with the student.
Sandoval was arrested on the charge in February 2019. He is no longer employed by the Brownsville Independent School District and has also surrendered his teaching certificate.
WHAT IS DEFERRED ADJUDICATION
Deferred adjudication is a special form of judge-ordered community supervision (commonly known as “probation”) that permits a defendant to accept responsibility for a crime without an actual conviction being placed on the record.
Only a judge can grant deferred adjudication, not a jury, so the prosecutor and defendant must agree to waive a jury trial, according to txcourts.gov.
Judge Cordova said with regards to deferred adjudication, if Sandoval at the end of this period does everything he is suppose to do the charges against him are going to be dismissed.
