SAN ANTONIO — An SAISD employee is out of a job after retaliation from a scorned lover, court documents show.
An arrest affidavit from August 16 showed that intimate images between two adults were emailed to the school employee's workplace for "payback." The victim called police about her ex-boyfriend, Rodolfo Fernandez, Jr.
Investigators say he sent an email with three nude images of her to SAISD officials. She told police Fernandez also sent her a text threatening to send the nude image after she ended a relationship with him.
Despite not giving permission to send those images, she was called into SAISD headquarters on that same day and told to resign or face termination, the arrest documents state. She chose to resign.
When KENS 5 reached out to SAISD officials on this matter, the district responded that it couldn't speak on personnel matters.
Meanwhile, a legal expert KENS 5 spoke to called the case unusual given a different person committed a felony than the woman, who lost her job anyway.
“Think about the precedent this sets," said Joseph Hoelscher, a San Antonio-based trial lawyer. "Any ex-girlfriend or boyfriend – any angry ex – can send nude photos to an employer and tell them somebody’s done something wrong and now we get fired. That’s just not how things work.”
Asked if the victim was wrongfully terminated, Hoelscher said in Texas you can be fired at will. But as an employee of a school district, there are usually more procedures that need to be followed.
In the end, it depends on what's in the employee's contract.
He adds that, in this case, the allegations that she was sending photos to students are toxic. But it's not actual evidence from a credible source.
“There was no process or investigation prior to a termination. She was just offered the choice of resigning or getting fired," Hoelscher said. "Most people will take the decision she did and resign rather than get fired. She had no opportunity to defend herself here and she didn’t engage in any misconduct, and because it’s a government entity it’s very likely that more was required than that knee-jerk reaction."
Fernandez was arrested and faces charges of "publishing or threatening to publish intimate visual materials." It's a felony charge punishable by up to two years in jail and fines of up to $10,000.
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