A Texas Court of Appeals has denied the request of a former Hamlin MS resource officer accused of planting THC vapes on students, clearing the way for trial.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Texas 13th Court of Appeals has denied a request from former Hamlin Middle School resource officer Andrew Abel Gonzalez to have a cell phone recording withheld from evidence as he faces charges of intent to impair and official oppression.

Gonzalez is accused, along with ex-Hamlin Middle School assistant principal Amanda Lee Corona, of planting a vape pen on students back in March 2023. 

In a probable cause statement that was filed ahead of Corona’s arrest, an investigator with the Nueces County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigation Unit said he was called to the CCISD school in 2023 to look into the allegation. 

It was there that he said he was given an audio recording in which Corona and CCISD police officer Andrew Gonzalez found a vape pen containing THC (marijuana) wax. The report states that the vape pen was found behind a filing cabinet. 

The investigator states that Corona and Gonzalez could be heard agreeing to put the pen into a student’s backpack on the recording.

It was this recording that Gonzalez was seeking to have excluded.

“We find that Gonzalez, as a law enforcement officer, had no reasonable expectation of privacy in statements made while in a classroom during the course of an investigation,” the Court said in it’s ruling. 

The probable cause statement explains that a student was disciplined by school officials when the vape pen was found in his belongings. A second student was disciplined after Corona and Gonzalez said the first student accused her of owning the pen.

A third student also was disciplined when the same pen also was found in his binder. The investigator states that Corona and Gonzalez also planted the pen in this student’s belongings. 

In December of 2024 CCISD communications director Leanne Libby told 3NEWS: 

“CCISD acts immediately to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing, a process which can include placing employees on administrative leave with pay.

In March 2023, school administration took swift action to launch an investigation into the allegations at Hamlin. While we cannot share details of personnel actions or investigations, we can confirm Ms. Corona was on administrative leave starting in March 2023 and has not been employed at CCISD since August 2023. A campus officer named in the allegations has not been employed at CCISD since March 2023.

We respectfully refer any additional questions to local law enforcement.”


Framed student’s mother responds 

In December of 2024, Yvonne Gatica described her shift in trust after the former assistant principal of Hamlin Middle School, Amanda Lee Corona, and CCISD police officer Andrew Gonzalez allegedly framed her son by putting a vape pen containing THC in his backpack.

“I don’t trust anyone, not even the educators when I did before,” she said. “When the teacher would call me and say whatever, I was quick to believe the teacher, the principal, the assistant principal.”

Information from the case affidavit obtained by 3NEWS reads that an investigator from the Nueces County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigation Unit was called to Hamlin in 2023 to look into the situation. 

He was given an audio recording, in which he states both Corona and the officer are audibly heard agreeing to put the pen in the student’s bag.

“My son would have been charged, he would have had a felony on his record,” Gatica said.Â