A former Rockport-Fulton High School maritime science teacher was booked into Aransas County jail on Thursday after a grand jury returned an indictment accusing him of an improper relationship with a student. Josh Nguyen faces four second-degree felony counts, with bail set at $50,000 on the first count and $500 personal recognizance bonds on each of the remaining three.
The indictment, handed up by an Aransas County grand jury on August 6, alleges Nguyen engaged in two counts of sexual intercourse with an enrolled Rockport-Fulton High School student, identified in court records only as DW, on or about May 5 and May 12, 2025, according to SouthTexasNews.com. The indictment further alleges that Nguyen improperly touched DW with his hand on or about May 5, 2025, with intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire, and that he touched her breast on or about September 10, 2025. The Rockport Police Department originally charged Nguyen in December 2025 with sexual assault of a child and improper relationship between an educator and a student, and he was booked into the Aransas County jail again on Thursday following the indictment, per online jail records cited in the same report.
A Teacher With Three Overlapping Roles
Nguyen taught maritime science at Rockport-Fulton High School from 2022 until he separated from the district in September 2025, the outlet reports. He also served as director of the nonprofit Texas Coastal Academy, a maritime vocational program he co-founded that operated as an after-school program on Rockport-Fulton ISD property with district approval, according to Texas Scorecard. That arrangement gave Nguyen access to district students off campus, after school hours, and during summer months from 2022 through 2025, the outlet notes.
At the same time, Nguyen held a third position as Executive Director of the Aransas County Navigation District, a local public agency. The navigation district placed him on administrative leave following his December 2025 arrest, and its board of commissioners voted 3-0 in late March to terminate his employment effective May 1, 2026. Nguyen's father, elected ACND Commissioner Long Nguyen, recused himself from that vote, while another commissioner abstained, Texas Scorecard reports. Nguyen had been hired by the navigation district in August 2025, shortly before separating from the school district.
How the Case Came to Light
The Rockport Police Department opened its criminal investigation on December 17, 2025, after a third-party whistleblower reported alleged conduct spanning the 2024–25 school year and the summer of 2025. The student confirmed the abuse after law enforcement confronted her following that report, according to Texas Scorecard. Nguyen was initially arrested on December 22, 2025, and released on $100,000 bond, before the August grand jury indictment led to his re-arrest.
A $10 Million Civil Lawsuit and a New State Law
Separately, in May 2026, Houston trial attorney Tony Buzbee filed a civil lawsuit in Aransas County District Court on behalf of the student's parents, seeking more than $10 million in damages from Nguyen, his twin brothers Brandon and Brennen, Rockport-Fulton ISD, High School Principal Jodi Carter, and Texas Coastal Academy, per Texas Scorecard. The complaint alleges Carter was aware of Nguyen's improper grooming and relationship with the student but failed to notify her parents or report the abuse to law enforcement as required under Texas law. The suit alleges the abuse began in 2023 and continued through 2025, starting when the student was 14 or 15 years old.
That lawsuit tests a state law that took effect less than a year before the suit was filed. Under Texas House Bill 4623, effective September 1, 2025, sovereign immunity was waived for public school districts, making them civilly liable for gross negligence or recklessness if their hiring, supervision, or retention practices enable an employee's sexual misconduct against a student, according to BillTrack50. It marks the first major waiver of Texas public school immunity since 1969, and the law caps civil damages at $500,000 per claimant plus court costs and attorney's fees.
Nguyen's twin brother Brandon Nguyen, one of the co-defendants named in the civil suit, was separately jailed in 2026 on felony drug charges including possession with intent to deliver, Texas Scorecard reports. All three Nguyen brothers remain co-defendants in the multi-million-dollar civil action.
What Comes Next Legally
Under Texas Penal Code § 21.12, improper relationship between an educator and a student is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000 per count upon conviction, according to L&L Law Group. Student consent is not a legal defense under Texas law because of the inherent power imbalance between school employees and enrolled students.
Criminal charges under that statute also trigger parallel administrative proceedings by the Texas Education Agency and the State Board for Educator Certification, which can permanently revoke a certified educator's teaching credentials and place them on the state's mandatory Do Not Hire registry, per the same source. Texas Education Agency records show the state logged more than 13,000 complaints and 17,000 criminal history alerts regarding educators between September 2021 and July 2024, a 128% increase over the previous six-year tracking period, according to a report from 24-7 Press Release.
That surge in reported misconduct has fed a broader legislative push in Texas. In August, Governor Greg Abbott proposed legislation for the 2027 session that would set a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence, with no possibility of parole, for any educator convicted of sexually abusing a student, according to Texas Policy Research. Whether school administrators ignored earlier warning signs, as alleged in the civil filing, and how the navigation district managed the conflict posed by an elected commissioner's son remain open questions as both the criminal case and the civil lawsuit move forward.
