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By Melissa Ludwig, Bob Banta
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 25, 2005
ROUND ROCK - Police arrested a school board member and prominent lawyer Thursday, accusing him of offering legal services in exchange for sexual favors.
Steven C. Copenhaver, 56, was charged with prostitution, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail. He was released from jail Thursday afternoon on a $750 bond.
An arrest affidavit said Copenhaver offered to represent a Round Rock woman's husband if she and her sister-in-law would perform sex acts with him and each other.
Copenhaver issued this statement Thursday:
"I am deeply apologetic to my family and friends. I hope that all of them will support me during this difficult time. I intend to work through the legal process to get this behind me as soon as possible. Please keep me in your prayers."
Copenhaver is the vice president and the longest-serving member of the Round Rock school board - he has served 15 years during two stints on the board - and has been a lawyer in private practice in Georgetown for more than 20 years.
According to the warrant, Leigh Heavin of Round Rock called Copenhaver on Feb. 23 and asked if he could represent her husband in a criminal case. She told him that she did not have much money and asked if they could arrange a payment plan, according to the warrant.
Copenhaver told Heavin that they could work something out and asked her if she had any good-looking friends, according to the warrant. He told her that he had fantasized about two women having sex together, according to the warrant.
The next day, Copenhaver came to Heavin's apartment shortly after her sister-in-law, Malinda Tilley, had dropped in, the warrant said. Unknown to Copenhaver, it said, Heavin's mental health caseworker, her mother and her husband were in a back bedroom.
Copenhaver asked Tilley and Heavin to perform sexual favors for him, according to the warrant. When the women asked "what they would get out of this," Copenhaver said he would represent Heavin's husband, the warrant said.
At that point, the caseworker - from the Bluebonnet Trails Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center - and other family members emerged and called police, according to the warrant.
Mike Davis, a Round Rock lawyer who has known Copenhaver for more than 20 years, said he was stunned and saddened by the arrest. "I don't know if he did it or not, but I have always known Steve to be a good guy," Davis said.
Fellow board member Mike Alderson called Copenhaver a strong family man. "This seems totally out of character," Alderson said.
John Romano, school board president, said Thursday that he did not know how the arrest would affect Copenhaver's position on the seven-member board. "At this point I will have to consult board policy and talk with the board's attorney," Romano said.
Copenhaver narrowly won re-election in 2003. His Place 7 position does not expire until May 2006.
Dawn Miller, chief disciplinary counsel for the State Bar of Texas, said exchanging legal services for sexual favors could constitute a violation of rules barring "illegal or unconscionable" fees. Punishment could range from a reprimand to disbarment, Miller said.
Copenhaver was first elected to the board in 1987. He did not run for re-election after the law firm he worked for began representing the district. In the mid-1990s he successfully ran for the board again.
As the economy began to lag in 2000, Copenhaver urged the Texas Legislature to provide more money for public schools. He also advocated lifting the $1.50 ceiling set by state law on the portion of the district's property tax rate that pays for operating classrooms.
Copenhaver was a strong supporter of a $349 million bond proposal that was defeated at the polls this month. Raised in Houston, Copenhaver graduated from the University of Houston law school in 1974 and served as an Army prosecutor, according to the school district's Web site. He moved to the Austin area in 1981 and established a private law practice in Georgetown handling criminal law, estate planning, family law, medical malpractice and real estate law.
In 2003, he defended Larry Elliott, a man with paranoid schizophrenia, in a high-profile murder case. Elliott was sentenced to life in prison for crashing a truck through the front of the H-E-B grocery store in Georgetown in 2002, killing 70-year-old Betty Davis.
Copenhaver's wife, Janet, is a retired teacher at Deep Wood Elementary School for 19 years. They have one daughter.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 25, 2005
ROUND ROCK - Police arrested a school board member and prominent lawyer Thursday, accusing him of offering legal services in exchange for sexual favors.
Steven C. Copenhaver, 56, was charged with prostitution, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail. He was released from jail Thursday afternoon on a $750 bond.
An arrest affidavit said Copenhaver offered to represent a Round Rock woman's husband if she and her sister-in-law would perform sex acts with him and each other.
Copenhaver issued this statement Thursday:
"I am deeply apologetic to my family and friends. I hope that all of them will support me during this difficult time. I intend to work through the legal process to get this behind me as soon as possible. Please keep me in your prayers."
Copenhaver is the vice president and the longest-serving member of the Round Rock school board - he has served 15 years during two stints on the board - and has been a lawyer in private practice in Georgetown for more than 20 years.
According to the warrant, Leigh Heavin of Round Rock called Copenhaver on Feb. 23 and asked if he could represent her husband in a criminal case. She told him that she did not have much money and asked if they could arrange a payment plan, according to the warrant.
Copenhaver told Heavin that they could work something out and asked her if she had any good-looking friends, according to the warrant. He told her that he had fantasized about two women having sex together, according to the warrant.
The next day, Copenhaver came to Heavin's apartment shortly after her sister-in-law, Malinda Tilley, had dropped in, the warrant said. Unknown to Copenhaver, it said, Heavin's mental health caseworker, her mother and her husband were in a back bedroom.
Copenhaver asked Tilley and Heavin to perform sexual favors for him, according to the warrant. When the women asked "what they would get out of this," Copenhaver said he would represent Heavin's husband, the warrant said.
At that point, the caseworker - from the Bluebonnet Trails Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center - and other family members emerged and called police, according to the warrant.
Mike Davis, a Round Rock lawyer who has known Copenhaver for more than 20 years, said he was stunned and saddened by the arrest. "I don't know if he did it or not, but I have always known Steve to be a good guy," Davis said.
Fellow board member Mike Alderson called Copenhaver a strong family man. "This seems totally out of character," Alderson said.
John Romano, school board president, said Thursday that he did not know how the arrest would affect Copenhaver's position on the seven-member board. "At this point I will have to consult board policy and talk with the board's attorney," Romano said.
Copenhaver narrowly won re-election in 2003. His Place 7 position does not expire until May 2006.
Dawn Miller, chief disciplinary counsel for the State Bar of Texas, said exchanging legal services for sexual favors could constitute a violation of rules barring "illegal or unconscionable" fees. Punishment could range from a reprimand to disbarment, Miller said.
Copenhaver was first elected to the board in 1987. He did not run for re-election after the law firm he worked for began representing the district. In the mid-1990s he successfully ran for the board again.
As the economy began to lag in 2000, Copenhaver urged the Texas Legislature to provide more money for public schools. He also advocated lifting the $1.50 ceiling set by state law on the portion of the district's property tax rate that pays for operating classrooms.
Copenhaver was a strong supporter of a $349 million bond proposal that was defeated at the polls this month. Raised in Houston, Copenhaver graduated from the University of Houston law school in 1974 and served as an Army prosecutor, according to the school district's Web site. He moved to the Austin area in 1981 and established a private law practice in Georgetown handling criminal law, estate planning, family law, medical malpractice and real estate law.
In 2003, he defended Larry Elliott, a man with paranoid schizophrenia, in a high-profile murder case. Elliott was sentenced to life in prison for crashing a truck through the front of the H-E-B grocery store in Georgetown in 2002, killing 70-year-old Betty Davis.
Copenhaver's wife, Janet, is a retired teacher at Deep Wood Elementary School for 19 years. They have one daughter.
