Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz has filed notice of his intent to appeal the state District Court order that quashed the indictment against Brownsville Independent School District Trustee Minerva M. Pena on a charge of nepotism.
Saenz filed the notice of appeal Monday afternoon after Judge Linda Yañez, the former senior judge on the 13th Court of Appeals, issued the order to quash the indictment after a hearing March 31 in the 404th state District Court.
Previously, the BISD Board of Trustees passed a resolution Oct. 27, in a case involving Peña, the board’s longest serving member, and employment of her daughter- in-law as a teacher at Veterans Memorial Early College High School.
The vote was 6-0-1 with Peña abstaining. It came after a 2 1/2-hour closed-door executive session.
On Oct. 22, Peña surrendered to Cameron County Sheriff’s deputies on a single Class C misdemeanor charge of nepotism in the case. Prior to that, a county grand jury and Saenz charged that Peña had violated section 573.041 of the Texas Government Code, the state’s nepotism law, between June 8, 2021 and Aug. 6, 2021 regarding her daughter-in-law’s employment. The daughter-in-law later passed away.
Peña has said she had nothing to do with BISD hiring her daughter-in-law, who later divorced from her son, saying that as a board member she has always left hiring decisions to Superintendent Rene Gutierrez and his administration as required by law.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the BISD board has delegated authority to hire and fire teachers to Gutierrez to give him flexibility in running the district. Hiring teachers quickly became important with many reluctant to serve as the pandemic raged.
After she was indicted, Peña had voluntarily refrained from attending or participating in BISD activities other than to fulfill her duties as a board trustee. After the nepotism indictment was quashed, she returned to her practice of attending BISD functions not related to her board duties.
