IES GALLEGOS SR., JR., GONZALEZ OFF THE HOOK; JUDGE GRANTS FEDS' MOTION TO DISMISS THEFT INDICTMENT

Various Sources

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez on Tuesday granted the U.S. Attorney's Office motion and dismissed the indictment against former executives with International Educational Services, or IES, the nonprofit that provided services to unaccompanied minor children here without lawful immigration status.

Because the indictment was dismissed without prejudice, the government could re-indict Gallegos, Gallegos Jr. and Gonzalez. However, Rodriguez said from the bench that prosecutors had indicated they do not not intend to do so.  Court records show that evidence existed that had not been turned over to defense attorneys.

The charges concerned activities at the nonprofit between 2014 and 2018 when it received millions of dollars in federal grant funds.

A 2016 audit of IES’s 2015 fiscal year found that the Gallegoses and Gonzalez violated executive compensation limits and committed less-than-arm’s-length transactions in violation of federal limits.

Rodriguez said from the bench Tuesday morning that there was no evidence of bad faith on the part of the government. In the motion to dismiss, prosecutors only said that they were asking for the charges to be dropped in the interest of justice. 

Defense attorney for the Gallegos Benigno "Trey" Martinez claimed the government had failed to turn over exculpatory evidence under the Brady Rule and Rule 16 Discovery of a report by a Office of the Inspector General's Office of Audit Services auditor Nancy Bibb. The defense asked the court to dismiss the indictment because she might have been "withholding any document or email whatsoever concerning IES, the defendants, or any of the issues that have been brought forth."

Gonzalez previously had pleaded guilty to the charges and also his attorney Reynaldo Garza III had sought the motion to dismiss the indictment. Rodriguez granted that motion, dismissing the indictment as moot.


As previously reported by The Brownsville Herald, IES was a nonprofit in the Rio Grande Valley that contracted with the federal government under the Unaccompanied Alien Child care and placement program to provide housing, food, placement and other services to children with no lawful immigration status and who did not have parents or legal guardians here to care for them.

The charges concerned activities at the nonprofit between 2014 and 2018 when it received millions of dollars in federal grant funds. IES operated for years before abruptly shutting down and firing all of its employees on March 31, 2018

Rodriguez said from the bench Tuesday morning that there was no evidence of bad faith on the part of the government. In the motion to dismiss, prosecutors only said that they were asking for the charges to be dropped in the interest of justice.