University Police will meet with prosecutors from the Edinburg Municipal Court this week to discuss the case in which a UTRGV professor allegedly slapped a student last month, officials say.
“We’ve interviewed various students about [the case],” UTRGV Police Chief Raul Munguia said. “… From our end, it still looks like it’s a class C misdemeanor. We will be briefing it with the prosecutors over at the municipal court just to get another opinion.”
On Jan. 21, a student on the Edinburg campus reported that her philosophy class was having a discussion about right and wrong and while the discussion was taking place, the professor slapped her on her left cheek. She was shocked because the slap was unexpected.
As of press time Thursday, the chief said no charges had been filed and the case is still under investigation.
“The victim, at this point, doesn’t want to file charges,” Munguia said. “However, we’re going to go to the municipal court to speak to the prosecutors to show them the case, show them what we have … just to make sure that we’re not misreading it.”
Last Wednesday, The Rider filed an open records request, asking for a copy of the offense report of the case. The request was submitted to UTRGV Chief Legal Officer Karen Adams.
A governmental body must “promptly” produce public information in response to the request. “Promptly” means that a governmental body may take a reasonable amount of time to produce the information, which varies depending on the facts in each case, according to the Texas Attorney General’s website.
