Limón: Teacher arrested for soliciting minor had ‘clean’ record

By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com

Alfredo Hernandez

The San Benito choir teacher who was arrested Friday for soliciting a minor did not have a prior criminal record, school district officials have reported.

“He had a completely clean background check,” San Benito CISD Superintendent of Schools Antonio G. Limón said about Alfredo Hernandez. “We just ran current background checks three months ago on every employee in the district.”

Hernandez, 29, resigned Monday morning after he was arrested for soliciting a 12-year-old girl from Harlingen via Facebook. A choir teacher at Berta Cabaza Middle School, Hernandez’s charges stem from accusations that he attempted to lure the victim out of her parents’ house for a late night rendezvous at his apartment.

As first reported on sbnewspaper.com, details including Hernandez’s identification as a BCMS choir teacher were confirmed by district officials Monday.

“San Benito CISD school leaders have been made aware of an incident involving Alfredo Hernandez, a former teacher… arrested this past weekend by the Harlingen Police Department,” school district officials said in press release. “The teacher in question has resigned effective immediately and is no longer employed with the district. The teacher had been employed with the district for six years. San Benito CISD school officials have taken the necessary measures in regards to notifying Texas Education Agency’s State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC) about the teacher’s alleged incident.”

It all started when a 32-year-old Harlingen woman informed police that Hernandez had allegedly contacted her 12-year-old daughter on Facebook, “and had suggested that she sneak out of the house, leave the parents, and meet with him,” HPD Sergeant John Parish said in a press release. “According to the reporting person, the adult male advised that he would pick her (12-year-old female) up and take her to his apartment.”

Citing the Facebook messages, Parish said Hernandez identified himself as “Freddy Love” and allegedly “mentioned illicit sexual conduct.”

Harlingen police officers in marked and unmarked units apprehended Hernandez Friday evening near the Walmart parking lot in Harlingen, where the suspect – reportedly driving a Chevrolet passenger vehicle – allegedly planned to meet the 12-year-old.

Interestingly, it was Hernandez who replaced Ramiro C. Lozano in 2007 as the BCMS choir teacher. Lozano is in his second year of serving a 19-year prison sentence after admitting in October 2009 to persuading young boys to pose nude in photographs.

Employed as a choir teacher at Besteiro Middle School when the allegations surfaced, Lozano worked in the same capacity in San Benito for nine years, a stint that lasted from August 1998 to 2007 and included employment at Berta Cabaza and Dr. Raul Garza Elementary.

It remains unclear if Hernandez worked with Lozano at any time during their employment with the San Benito school district.

Read this story in the October 17 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.