It appears as though the government is going to handle the prosecution of the recently indicted former EPISD officials as a conspiracy case.
There are two counts (lying to a grand jury and lying to the FBI) that look as though they apply to only one of the defendants. The other defendants don’t seem to be involved.
There is one count of mail fraud (even though Federal Express was the carrier) that alleges an improper shipment on April 26, 2011. The indictment implies that there is a five year statute of limitations on this type of mail fraud. The indictment was filed with the court April 20, 2016. If I read everything correctly that means that they waited 4 years and 51 weeks to bring the indictment. It would seem to me that if what these people did was so horrible the government would want to put them in jail right away.
There are three counts of alleged conspiracy. It looks like this is where the government is going to focus. If they cannot get any of the defendants to give up before trial they will probably produce a “he said, she said” case. I have heard on the street that some of the defendants did not/do not even know each other.
If they can get one or some of the defendants to fold, then their plea agreement will probably say their sentence will depend upon “how well they cooperate at trial”.
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Hard to imagine them getting any kind of time even if they are found guilty, when the ringleader of it all got about 2 years (with time off for being in a treatment program) and got to keep his $200K+ per year retirement. It looks to me like they want to try a trial by media, first by parading them around like they are all El Chapo wannabes, then by having the dear ex Senator, his surrogates, and some of the EPISD folks talking about how this is “closure.” Hell, it was “closure” when they carted off Garcia. The rest is just for show.
If I were the defendants, I would go to trial.The local Federal prosecuter does not like to go to trial, and has a pretty poor track record. The Feds would rather have the plea deal. It still counts towards their quota of conviction, and they dont risk losing.
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DD – Agree. The Feds are putting on a big show by parading these guys in front of the cameras. This investigation took almost 5 years! Makes me think the FBI was taking its sweet time on the investigation until the ex Senator rattled their cage because he wanted some favorable press leading up to an announcement.
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Some of these people will likely get longer sentences than the former super because they didn’t plead and cut deals sooner.
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If they’re guilty they should get serious slammer time. Stop thinking about the perps and start thinking about their victims: the students who lost a year of their lives because these criminals held them back. Then the poor taxpayers who have not yet been hit with the lawsuits from the students’ families that guilty verdicts will validate.
Really, the whole Dodge board should be sued and or prosecuted if possible.
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Yep.
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