Board censures indicted trustee
In a 6-0 vote, the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District board Tuesday censured indicted trustee Gary Inmon and issued a statement calling it “the strongest possible action we are allowed.”
Read by board president Robert Westbrook, the statement said trustees “felt it necessary … to let our community and employeees know that the allegations brought forth against Mr. Inmon reflect neither the board’s standard of conduct nor the district’s stated mission, vision, values and belief statements.”
Inmon was not in attendance, having told the board beforehand that he had to work that night. He submitted a statement, which Westbrook read, that said he would “honor and respect” the decision to censure him and expressing his regret “that SCUC has been in any way affected by these recent issues.”
Inmon, a lawyer, was indicted by a Guadalupe County grand jury this month on three thirddegree felony charges — misapplying fiduciary property, theft and aggravated perjury — stemming from his execution of an estate in a probate case.
He was arrested last Wednesday. His bail was set at $50,000, and he was released on bond the next day, according to county records.
According to an inventory Inmon filed in the estate case, the assets of Elizabeth Doss of Schertz, who died in 2016, were valued at $131,456, including a $126,456 house. Guadalupe County Appraisal District records, meanwhile, show the property was sold to a rental company that year. Yet Doss’ beneficiaries saw none of the proceeds, the attorney of one of her stepchildren has argued in court documents.
The indictment states that in 2016 Inmon “intentionally and knowingly (misapplied) property” that he “held as a fiduciary or as a person acting in a fiduciary capacity” for Doss. It also says that in 2017 he lied under oath about having given notice to members of the Doss family that they were named as beneficiaries in Doss’ will.
Inmon faces other legal prob--
lems. He filed documents in the Doss case during a year-long suspension of his law license, which went into effect after the State Bar of Texas found that he had not returned a $10,000 advance payment to a former client. The suspension ended in October 2017.
Unrelated to the Doss allegations, Inmon was also arrested in late 2017 on a charge of assaulting a family member and impeding breath during an altercation with his adult stepson. Inmon has said he was acting “completely in self defense” to protect himself and his son, then 8. He has not been indicted in that case.
Four speakers at the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting criticized Inmon. Two of them faulted the board, with the exception of trustee John Correu, for not being willing to publicly criticize Inmon during months leading up to the indictment, when his legal problems appeared in media reports.
“At some point, leaders have to lead,” said one of them, Terrence Benson, in an interview while the board met in closed session before the censure vote. “There’s just, there’s no leadership from the board.”
Amber O’Neal told the board that Inmon should resign and said the other trustees should call for him to do so if he does not on his own accord.
Per SCUC ISD policies, a trustee can be removed from the board if convicted of a felony, but Westbrook had said in the wake of the indictment that the board might not “reach that threshold” in Inmon’s case.
Inmon has served on the SCUC ISD board of trustees for 18 years. Last November, he was re-elected for a sixth term with more than 57 percent of the vote.