A Travis County jury unanimously found Aaron Freeman not guilty of indecency of a child by sexual contact, closing out an 18-month legal ordeal for the former IDEA Public Schools assistant principal accused of inappropriately touching a student on school property in Round Rock. Freeman, who worked as assistant principal of operations at the charter campus, had faced a second-degree felony charge carrying up to 20 years in prison before jurors cleared him this week.
As reported by KXAN Austin, the accusation dated back to a student report that set off a Round Rock Police Department investigation. Detectives with the department obtained an arrest warrant from the Travis County District Attorney's Office after the student came forward, and Freeman was ultimately arrested by U.S. Marshals in March 2025, according to the City of Round Rock. He was 49 at the time of his arrest and was released from custody on bond shortly after being booked, per KVUE.
Court documents obtained after the arrest indicated the alleged inappropriate touching occurred on campus during morning community service hours before school started, KVUE reported at the time. Marc Chavez, Freeman's attorney, said his client maintained his innocence from day one and spent more than a year and a half combing through the evidence with his defense team before the case reached trial.
An Acquittal After Months of Scrutiny
Freeman endured months of public scrutiny about his arrest and the facts surrounding it, the case notes. That scrutiny ended this week when the Travis County jury returned its unanimous not-guilty verdict, a resolution Chavez described as full exoneration for his client. Chavez said Freeman had received a second chance at life in the community and thanked the citizens of Travis County for their jury service.
Had jurors reached a different conclusion, the stakes for Freeman would have been severe. Indecency with a child by sexual contact is classified as a second-degree felony under Texas Penal Code Section 21.11, carrying a prison sentence of 2 to 20 years and a fine of up to $10,000, according to Varghese Summersett. A conviction would also have mandated lifelong registration on the Texas Sex Offender Registry, per the Whalen Law Office.
The School at the Center of the Case
IDEA Round Rock Tech, where Freeman served in his administrative role, is an open-enrollment public charter school serving grades K-12. According to 2025 state accountability data cited by the Texas Tribune, the campus's student body was 52.7% Hispanic and 50.9% economically disadvantaged. IDEA Public Schools, the charter network that runs the campus, was founded in South Texas in 2000 as a tuition-free public school system and has since grown to operate dozens of K-12 campuses across Texas, Florida, and Ohio.
The Round Rock campus was among eight Austin-area IDEA campuses designated for the federal Community Eligibility Provision in July 2024, which offered universal free meals to all enrolled students for the 2024-2025 school year, Hoodline previously reported. It is not clear from available records whether Freeman's arrest and prosecution disrupted operations or oversight at the school during the 18-month judicial process.
Privacy Protocols Shielded the Accuser
Throughout the case, the identity of the student who made the allegation remained shielded from public court filings. Travis County District Court proceedings in child sexual offense cases routinely enforce strict victim privacy guidelines that prosecutors adopted in 2023, keeping minor accusers' full names out of the record. Felony child abuse and indecency allegations in Travis County are typically investigated by municipal police child abuse units working alongside county prosecutors and federal fugitive task forces, a workflow reflected in how Round Rock police and U.S. Marshals coordinated Freeman's arrest.
What remains unknown is whether Freeman intends to seek reinstatement with IDEA Public Schools or pursue any further legal action following his acquittal. Chavez's comments framed the verdict as a full vindication for his client after nearly a year and a half of uncertainty, but neither the attorney nor available records indicate what comes next for Freeman professionally.
