Travis County DA: 'Insufficient evidence' to charge Austin ISD executive for tampering
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Travis County prosecutors say there is insufficient evidence to charge a long-time Austin Independent School District executive with tampering with government records.
In a court record filed on Wednesday, the Travis County District Attorney's Office stated that it would not file charges.
In February, Austin Independent School District investigators accused Amie Ortiz, 40, of deleting information police requested while she was working as the district's director of talent strategy. Ortiz has been an AISD employee for over 17 years, serving in both teaching and executive roles.
She has been on administrative leave from the district since September 2024. Ortiz's attorney, Brian Roark, stated Ortiz was not aware she was the target of any investigation.
The charge Ortiz faced stemmed from an investigation into a different employee who was suspected of stealing thousands of dollars worth of gift cards.
According to investigators, Ortiz reported that more than $65,000 worth of district gift cards owned by the school district were missing. She also reported issues with misuse of the cards and lack of documentation.
The gift cards were purchased and issued through AISD's insurance carrier as a part of the district's employee wellness program, according to district officials and an affidavit.
Ortiz had created an internal tracking system on Google Sheets for the gift cards, which documented the gift card vendor, amount, quantity, the recipient of the card, the reason for releasing the card, and the date of release. According to investigators, multiple people could access the log.
But later, investigators accused Ortiz of "intentionally manipulating" that log. Detectives alleged that the day after they responded to the theft report, Ortiz deleted a portion of the gift card log totaling more than $36,250 and altered the initials next to several entries.
The log included an inventory from a January 2024 bulk order of $135,000 worth of gift cards, as well as inventory from another set of gift cards found in a storage cabinet over the summer, totaling $36,250, according to the affidavit.
Ortiz's attorney stated that Ortiz made the changes because she believed the detectives wanted her to provide an accurate account of the gift cards from the January 2024 bulk order of gift cards.
Ortiz's attorney said she was under the impression that the gift cards found in the storage cabinet were not part of the January bulk order and "had already been given to campuses for staff wellness" over the summer.
Ortiz's attorney also said that at some point, the safe containing the gift cards was moved to a different person's office, and Ortiz changed the initials to indicate that the inventory entries were made when the safe was in another person's office.
"Every action she took, statement made, and document she provided was accurate and true to the extent of her knowledge and understanding at that time. She never intentionally provided any false information," Roark said.