A former Doss school board member who incurred more than $48,000 in legal fees fighting charges by the Gillespie County Attorney that were later dismissed, will be reimbursed.

Gillespie County Attorney Steven Wadsworth has since been the subject of eight ethics complaints with the State Bar of Texas for “abusive prosecutorial overreach” and “grossly unethical conduct,” according to a copy of the ethics complaint obtained by the Standard-Radio Post through a Freedom of Information Act request. Former and current Doss school board trustees filed the grievance.

The Doss Consolidated Common School District voted unanimously on Tuesday, Feb. 20, to pay Andrea Chupik’s legal fees she incurred after Wadsworth levied two charges against her for failing to file proper conflict of interest paperwork. The paperwork in question related to two invoices totaling $721.99 for work Chupik did on the district’s website in 2020, $500 for a website update and $221.99 reimbursement for the district’s website domain registration. (The charges were misdemeanors but erroneously labeled by the 216th District Court as felony charges.)

Chupik was booked into the Gillespie County Jail in March 2022 on charges of abuse of official capacity and affidavit abstention from voting required. Both charges were dismissed “In the interest of justice and judicial economy” by Judge Albert Pattillo III of the 216th District Court on Sept. 21, 2023.

Wadsworth said it was “interesting” that the District Attorney Lucy Wilke’s motion to dismiss the charges did not include lack of evidence.

The motion stated: “Based on the evidence, this appears to have been an oversight and not with criminal intent.”

Wadsworth added, “I don’t know what her intent was. I know that I raised very clearly with her attorney that (Chupik) needed to file a very specific affidavit, and they never did.”

At its regular meeting last Tuesday, the board of trustees voted unanimously twice: first, that the district’s general fund would reimburse Chupik for attorney fees she paid to defend herself; and second, to amend the budget to make that possible.

The charges, Wadsworth claimed in the indictment, were in response to Chupik not having filed the proper form to do work for the district as a Doss CCSD trustee. Chupik, a graphic designer, was a Doss CCSD trustee at the time.

Wadsworth said on Thursday, Feb. 22, that he brought the matter before a grand jury because, “I wanted to see what the community thought of this. It is not a murder by any stretch. I took that in front of the grand jury and they returned a true bill. They could have easily not.

“I personally see the role of prosecutor and law enforcement is to enforce law blindly. Not mattering who it is,” Wadsworth said. “I found myself in a heads I win, tails I lose situation. If I didn’t do anything, then am I just going to say, it’s just paperwork. It’s no big deal. It’s just $500 or $700. Who cares? I firmly believe that the role of the prosecutor, and as you can well guess this has not made me any friends, is to stand up and blindly say, ‘Look, I see something, and we’re going to do something about it.”

Doss CCSD is a small district in northwestern Gillespie County that currently serves 12 students. Trustees serve as volunteers.

As part of Chupik’s motion to dismiss Wadsworth from prosecuting the case, the former general counsel for the State Bar of Texas wrote: “Personal agendas and grievance of prosecutor Steven Wadsworth and his wife Kandice Wadsworth must not be allowed to taint the prosecution or disposition of these cases­—and should not have affected the original decision to present the case to the grand jury.

“The Assumed Facts suggest that that is exactly what has happened—that Steve Wadsworth has pursued a campaign of investigation and attempted prosecution of employees and officials of a very small school district because Steven Wadsworth and Kandice Wadsworth were upset with policies and procedures followed by the school district, its Board of Trustees, and other employees.”

In addition to the $48,000 the school district will reimburse Chupik, the Doss CCSD board of trustees have spent $16,228 on legal fees related to the matter.

Wadsworth said Thursday he didn’t know why the legal bills amounted to that much and said it could have been avoided with filing the proper paperwork.

The DCCSD resolution passed on Tuesday, said in part: “Whereas, Ms. Chupik was compelled to expend attorneys’ fees to defend against charges which were ultimately dismissed; and whereas, those charges were related to Ms. Chupik’s performance of her duties; and whereas, all charges have been dismissed and no further action will occur concerning those charges: Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Trustees of Doss Consolidated Common School District shall reimburse Andrea Chupik for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $48,477.55.”

Craig Wood, the district’s attorney, declined to comment on behalf of the district “due to the attorney/client privilege.”

Ethics complaints

In the grievance complaints to the State Bar, former and current Doss school board trustees and a Doss administrator charged in part that, “Steven Wadsworth’s personal animosities and unethical agendas created blatant conflicts of interest and resulted in the abusive prosecutorial overreach that caused great hardship and suffering for the entire school district….”

After an ethics grievance is filed, the Chief Disciplinary Counsel’s office of the State Bar of Texas has 30 days from the date that they receive it to decide if it merits Professional Misconduct or Disability or both, according to the State Bar of Texas website.

“If it does not, then it is dismissed,” the website states.

If professional misconduct is found, then the matter is investigated and both parties will be notified with the name of the investigator, the website states.

The trustees’ grievance additionally stated: “(Wadsworth) admitted his and his wife’s improper personal involvements to the Office of the Texas Attorney General (OAG), and tried to get the OAG take over the investigations and prosecutions. The OAG refused, as did the District Attorney after Steven Wadsworth had to withdraw from the cases.”

Wadsworth denied having any kind of personal animosity against Chupik.

“With Miss Chupik, I absolutely wish her the very best. I really don’t know her. There is nothing personal there,” he said.

Disclosure: Andrea Chupik is a contract graphic designer for Rock & Vine Magazine, a publication of the Fredericksburg Publishing Company.