Hidalgo Co. Sheriff’s office seeks to withhold info on hot car death

Dr. Americo Paredes Elementary in Mission is seen in this undated photo. (Courtesy: Americo Paredes Elementary/Facebook)

The La Joya ISD Police Department says it has no documents related to the on-campus death of a child who died in a hot car at an elementary school in August or the arrest of a district employee that followed that death.

Diana Treviño-Montelongo

The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office arrested Diana Treviño-Montelongo on Sept. 15 and charged her with criminal negligent homicide regarding the five-year-old boy’s death.

Montelongo is a relative of the boy, who was found unresponsive in her car on Aug. 25 at Dr. Americo Paredes Elementary, where she worked as a teacher.

The day after the boy’s death, La Joya ISD Police Chief Raul Gonzalez said the district’s police department, the sheriff’s office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services were working together on the investigation.

The Monitor submitted open records requests to La Joya ISD and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office requesting all documents related to Montelongo’s arrest, including a probable cause affidavit or narrative.

Both entities replied Sept. 29.

La Joya ISD said that its police department has no information responsive to Montelongo’s request.

In fact, a representative further clarified that the district has no documents related to either the death of the child or Montelongo’s arrest.

The district advised The Monitor to request information through the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office “since they were the ones in charge of this case.”

The sheriff’s office does have documentation regarding the arrest, but it’s requesting a Texas Attorney General’s opinion on whether those documents can be withheld.

Those documents, the sheriff’s office says, must be withheld because they were made during the alleged abuse or neglect of a minor and contain identifying information of a victim younger than 18.

The sheriff’s office is also seeking an opinion on whether a similar request from KRGV should be withheld on the same grounds.

KRGV did get those documents somewhere. The news station reported last month that it obtained a probable cause affidavit and that court documents indicate Montelongo forgot the boy — her nephew — in the back seat of her vehicle, asleep, the morning of Aug. 25. She found him after she left the school almost nine hours later.

The Monitor also submitted an open records request with La Joya ISD police asking for any written communication between Chief Gonzalez and members of the media from August and September of this year, including text messages, social media messages, emails and any other documents.

The district says that communication does not exist.

A reporter from The Monitor sent Gonzalez three text messages on Aug. 25, although he did not respond.