TEXAS COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SCHOOLDallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas NewsSchool trustee's grandson arrested in theft

Dallas: Contractor Brashear, 26, accused of stealing DISD laptop

11:29 PM CDT on Monday, August 8, 2005

By PETE SLOVER and JESSICA LEEDER / The Dallas Morning News

The grandson of a Dallas school trustee was arrested last week and charged with stealing a laptop computer while working in the district for an outside contractor, according to court records.

Alonzo Brashear, 26, the grandson of Dallas Independent School District trustee Hollis Brashear, is accused of taking a laptop computer worth $1,215 from a filing cabinet in a DISD building on South Lamar Street during the week of June 10, according to an incident report filed by the Dallas Independent School District police.

Released on bail

Neither Hollis Brashear nor his grandson returned calls seeking comment Monday. Alonzo Brashear was released on $500 bail after his Aug. 2 arrest, and his case is awaiting review by a Dallas County grand jury.

The computer was among seven taken along with a dozen cellphones in a theft that was discovered June 17.

Four student workers and a fifth man admitted stealing the equipment, and one of the student suspects, Carlos Rico, 17, told police that he had seen Alonzo Brashear take a laptop, too, the report said.

Alonzo Brashear was working for Electro Information Systems, a Flower Mound computer repair and software vendor under contract to the district, the report said.

An official of that company denied any knowledge of the younger Mr. Brashear, saying only that she thought there was a Dallas schools trustee with that last name. She said she would look into the matter but did not call back or answer subsequent calls or messages.

Earlier, trustee Hollis Brashear had defended his grandson's previous employment with another district computer vendor, Micro System Enterprises. MSE is the lead firm in a consortium with a district contract worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

After that employment was reported, the district issued a news release confirming the trustee's position. Attorneys for the district found that no nepotism laws or policies were violated, since the younger Mr. Brashear worked for an outside contractor, not the district.

"Even the spouse of a public official may be in the employ of a vendor and not run afoul of the government code," the attorneys said. "Therefore, the employment by a vendor of the grandson of Mr. Brashear does not violate our anti-nepotism policy or state law."

Also, the district noted that while Hollis Brashear signed the Micro System contract for the district, he did so only because he was president of the school board at the time, not because he had any greater role than other trustees in approving the contract.

"The contract was approved by the board unanimously," the lawyers said, "and Mr. Brashear's signature as president of the board was merely done as a matter of the normal course of business on all contracts agreed upon by the board during his tenure as president."

Admitted having laptop

Police said that after initially denying the theft, the trustee's grandson admitted that he had taken a computer home but said that he had returned it. Upon further questioning, he conceded that he still had the laptop and turned it over to detectives at his house.

Ordinarily, theft of an item of the laptop's value is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. But, when that theft is by a public employee or contractor, the case is bumped up to a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years' imprisonment.

Court records show that Mr. Rico and Raul Rocha, 17, were arrested on charges of theft by a public servant, the same charge faced by Mr. Brashear. Mr. Rico's mother declined to comment on her son's behalf. Mr. Rocha said that he returned the laptop that he stole and turned himself in because he felt guilty.

The other suspects were not charged as adults, and it could not be determined whether they face juvenile charges.

E-mail pslover@dallasnews.com