Ex-EPISD Official Damon Murphy Pleads Guilty to Student Test Fraud

In a brazen scheme to game the federal education system, 50-year-old former El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) Associate Superintendent Damon Murphy admitted today to orchestrating a multi-year fraud that manipulated student test scores to deceive the U.S. Department of Education. Murphy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, caving under federal pressure after years of evading accountability for a system-wide academic rigging operation.

Appearing before Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Murphy admitted he and others deliberately violated the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) from February 2006 to September 2013. The goal: keep EPISD falsely compliant with federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards. By inflating performance metrics, Murphy and his co-conspirators submitted false reports to both the Texas Education Agency and the Department of Education, painting a picture of success that never existed.

Murphy confessed that during the 2008/2009 school year, he issued explicit “marching orders” to high school principals to block 9th-grade Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students — and others expected to score poorly — from advancing to 10th grade. This purge was designed to eliminate weak test scores before students faced the critical 10th-grade TAKS exam. But the fraud didn’t stop there. Murphy helped devise a workaround using partial course credits to later reclassify and promote those held-back students into 11th grade, bypassing all required testing and accountability mandates.

The scheme unraveled over time, leading to a six-count federal indictment unsealed in April 2016 against five remaining defendants: 41-year-old former EPISD Assistant Superintendent James Anderson; 52-year-old former Austin High School (AHS) Principal John Tanner; 52-year-old former AHS Assistant Principal Mark Phillip Tegmeyer; 53-year-old former AHS Assistant Principal Diane Thomas; and, 48-year-old former AHS Assistant Principal Nancy Love. All five are presumed innocent until proven guilty and are set for jury selection on February 13, 2017, before Judge Briones.

Murphy, who remains on bond pending sentencing, now faces up to five years in federal prison. No sentencing date has been set. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Debra Kanof, Robert Almonte, and Rifian Newaz. Federal authorities stress that while Murphy has admitted guilt, the remaining defendants are entitled to due process and a fair trial.

The investigation continues under the joint oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General. Special Agent in Charge Douglas E. Lindquist of the FBI’s El Paso Division, U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and Inspector General Kathleen S. Tighe all emphasized the gravity of undermining public education for personal and institutional gain. This case exposes how far some will go to manufacture success — and how deeply fraud can erode trust in America’s schools.