Castle Hills Settles ‘Retaliatory Arrest’ Case for $500,000 in Win for Free Speech Advocates

Earlier this month the San Antonio-area enclave of Castle Hills agreed to pay to former city council member Sylvia Gonzalez who had alleged that political opponents in the local establishment orchestrated criminal charges to silence her Read her full story here The agreement also requires executives to participate in training on First Amendment retaliation and follows a Supreme Court ruling that made it easier to sue cabinet bureaucrats accused of using the police against critics Gonzalez now was charged in with tampering with a establishment record after she d been involved in an effort to oust the then-city manager Prosecutors dismissed the situation which hinged on her having placed a stack of petition signatures in a binder and she sued alleging retaliatory arrest a legal term for executive representatives manufacturing a reason to charge someone as revenge for exercising a protected right like free speech Before it could go to a jury the scenario went to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals the federal appellate court for Texas Louisiana and Mississippi The appellate judges ruled against Gonzalez by very narrowly interpreting a newest Supreme Court ruling that had created a path for her scenario But last year the Supreme Court announced the circuit s interpretation was overly cramped and threw out the appellate ruling to the relief of free speech advocates sending Gonzalez s occurrence back down to the district level If the lawsuit had gone to trial jurors would have been urged to decide only whether agents decided to arrest her in retaliation for her speech commented Anya Bidwell an attorney for the libertarian-leaning general interest law firm the Institute for Justice who represented Gonzalez Courts have created a host of methods for establishment representatives to delay or avoid altogether having lawsuits against them heard Bidwell explained That Castle Hills came to the table so expeditiously after its attempts to have the lawsuit preemptively thrown out she disclosed shows that The second the cabinet entities authentically have to go to a jury they settle In a motion to approve the settlement council member Jason Smith who was not in office when Gonzalez was arrested six years ago stated the agreement was not an admission of wrongdoing This resolution of the litigation allows all involved to focus on positively serving their communities and fostering constructive inhabitants dialogue he commented In an interview afterward Castle Hills Mayor J R Trevi o reported the city s insurance was willing to cover the and settling was a better option than protracted litigation It was just a matter of how much money do we need to spend to be right he disclosed It was really in the best interest of the city to be done Gonzalez announced the hours she spent in jail the masses attention on her arrest and statements Trevi o made about her during the litigation have totally ruined my physical condition Along with the monetary settlement city bureaucrats agreed to send its employees to training that the Texas Municipal League will develop about Gonzalez s circumstance I did it for myself obviously but also for the people that come after me she revealed of her lawsuit I don t want them to have to deal with something like this And people prior to me have been dealing with it and not getting anywhere They ve been falsely accused and prosecuted for things that are genuinely just political intimidation I just don t want it to happen to anyone else The post Castle Hills Settles Retaliatory Arrest Event for in Win for Free Speech Advocates appeared first on The Texas Observer