EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The wife of a Socorro Independent School District trustee has been arrested by the district’s police department and is facing a charge of filing a false report after an incident at one of the district’s schools back in September.
SISD Trustee Pablo Barrera’s wife was arrested by SISD PD on Thursday, Nov. 2. Angelica Ramirez, 37, is accused of filing false assault charges against a teacher at Hueco Elementary after she got into an argument with the school’s principal and the teacher at the school.
She was booked on a charge of filing a false report and posted a $1,000 bond and was released the same day.
According to court documents, the investigating officer “believes that the defendant (Ramirez) filed assault charges because she is known to make allegations against school staff members when she disagrees with school administrators.”
Ramirez told Socorro ISD Police that she met with the principal at the school on Sept. 26 to discuss an incident from the previous day.
According to court documents, a campus security officer was summoned because Ramirez was yelling and cursing at Greg Hatch, the school’s principal.
Ramirez then wanted to know who had called campus security. A teacher, Crystal Carrasco, told Ramirez that she had called security and an argument ensued between them.
Ramirez told district police that Carrasco “was posturing up, yelling and trying to force her way into the school principal’s office to assault her.” She also said the security officer was preventing Carrasco from entering the office by standing in the doorway.
Ramirez said she did not feel the assault because “she was in shock at what was happening,” according to court documents. She also told police that she had just taken her anxiety medicine, which she said kept her from reacting.
The investigating officer from Socorro ISD asked Ramirez how the assault happened, and she said that Carrasco had grabbed her left shoulder, “causing her pain.”
Ramirez said she realized she was hurt when her husband tried to give her a hug later that day.
Ramirez said she did not initially file a police report because “she was crying and in shock and disbelief because of what had happened to her at the time of the incident,” according to court documents.
She had initially wanted to file a report with the City of Socorro Police Department but was referred to the school district’s police because the incident allegedly happened on campus.
Ramirez also told investigators that she did not feel that the Socorro ISD Police would investigate the case because her husband is a school board trustee. She also said that she reported the assault to the district’s superintendent, who “should have reported it to the SISD chief of police,” according to court documents.
During subsequent interviews with Socorro ISD Police, the principal, Greg Hatch, said Ramirez and Carrasco were never close enough to contact each other. Hatch also said he never saw Carrasco assault Ramirez and that Ramirez never claimed to have been assaulted or injured at the time of the incident.
“Principal Hatch stated that at no time was Ms. Carrasco within 6 feet of the defendant,” according to court documents.
District police also interviewed the campus security officer and the principal’s secretary who both said that Ramirez and Carrasco were never close enough for an assault to happen.
Socorro ISD reviewed surveillance footage from the day of the alleged incident at Hueco Elementary but there were no cameras and no surveillance footage of the area where the alleged assault happened.
On Oct. 26, Socorro ISD Police scheduled a follow-up interview with Ramirez, which she agreed to but failed to show up for.
She was arrested on Nov. 2.
