SAN ANTONIO – A petition filed in Bexar County state district court Wednesday seeks to remove a Northside Independent School District trustee from office, weeks after she entered a pretrial diversion program in a DWI case.
The petition, filed by Bexar County resident Robert Gonzalez, demands a jury trial to determine whether Dr. Karla Duran should be removed from her position.
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Duran, who represents NISD District 3, has remained in her board position despite a September 2023 arrest for driving while intoxicated.
NISD, San Antonio’s largest school district, has no policy in place for its board to publicly reprimand a fellow trustee accused of improper behavior, KSAT Investigates revealed in November.
This district, however, does have a process for the removal of a board member.
Any resident can file a petition for removal in a district court of the county where the trustee resides, as long as the filer has lived in the county where the petition is filed for the past six months and is not under indictment.
Intoxication is one of the reasons for removal listed in NISD’s policy.
Duran, who was elected last year, was given pretrial diversion earlier this month after her case was assigned to a special prosecutor.
The county’s pretrial diversion program, which is typically only available to defendants with either no prior criminal history or a minimal criminal history, and usually excludes defendants charged with using a deadly weapon, allows them to get a dismissal in their case and eventually seek an expunction of their records.
Expunction is the process of deleting information about a person’s arrest and criminal charges from law enforcement records.
Pretrial diversion is described as a contract between the prosecuting attorney and the accused person and usually includes taking appropriate courses for the charge, such as substance abuse or behavioral modification classes, community service and making restitution.
Duran did not respond to an email from KSAT seeking comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.
An NISD spokesman told KSAT the district would need to see a copy of the petition before properly responding. He did not respond to a question asking whether the school district would provide Duran legal counsel for the suit or if she is responsible for hiring her own attorney.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
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