Texas
Texas grandmother thrown in jail after criticizing local government. Now her case heads to the Supreme Court
A small town political feud that wound up with a Texas city council member behind bars is headed to the Supreme Court this week, where justices will consider whether the councilwoman can sue city leaders for politically motivated retaliation.
“I would never believe that I would be going to the Supreme Court,” Sylvia Gonzalez told Fox News. “I would never believe that I was in jail, either.”
Castle Hills police arrested Sylvia Gonzalez in July 2019 on a charge of tampering with a public document. Now, the Supreme Court will decide whether the grandmother and former city councilwoman can sue city officials for politically-motivated retaliation. (Courtesy Institute for Justice)
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Gonzalez and her attorneys at the nonprofit Institute for Justice are suing Castle Hills Mayor JR Trevino and other officials, alleging they plotted to remove her from office as retaliation for criticizing the city manager, thereby violating her First Amendment rights.
“In America, we don’t arrest our critics,” IJ attorney Anya Bidwell said.
Gonzalez’s story began in 2019, when the then-72-year-old retiree won a seat on the Castle Hills City Council. She said constituents had complained extensively that city manager Ryan Rapelye was unresponsive, particularly to their concerns over the condition of their streets.
In America, we don’t arrest our critics.
As soon as she was elected, Gonzalez championed a non-binding petition calling for the city manager to be replaced with a previous manager citizens felt had done a better job. Another resident introduced the petition at Gonzalez’s first city council meeting. Discussion of the manager’s job performance “grew contentious,” according to court records, and the meeting was extended through the following day.
At the end of the meeting, Gonzalez said she straightened up the papers strewn across her dais and put them in her binder before going to talk to a constituent.
A police officer interrupted the conversation, telling Gonzalez that Trevino wanted to speak with her, according to court documents. Gonzalez went back to the dais and Trevino asked where the petition was. Gonzalez said she didn’t know. Trevino allegedly asked her to look in her binder, saying he could see a clip inside.
Security video from May 22, 2019, shows then-Councilwoman Sylvia Gonzalez pulling the petition out of her binder at the request of Mayor JR Trevino and a police officer. The non-binding petition called for the reinstatement of a former city manager, who Gonzalez and supporters said was more reliable and dedicated to completing street repairs than her successors. (Screenshot via City of Castle Hills Texas/YouTube)
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Indeed, the petition was in the binder, so Gonzalez handed it over and thought nothing of it. But two months later, she learned from a neighbor that there was a warrant out for her arrest.
“I didn’t even know what I was accused of,” Gonzalez told Fox News. “I’d never been in jail … and it was very scary to an old lady like me.”
Trevino and police chief John Siemens used the briefly displaced petition to launch a criminal investigation into Gonzalez, her lawsuit claims. Three weeks into the investigation, the police chief assigned a “trusted friend and local attorney” to take over as a “special detective,” according to Gonzalez’s complaint.
The special detective produced an arrest affidavit alleging Gonzalez had “been openly antagonistic” toward the city manager from her first meeting, “wanting desperately to get him fired.” The affidavit also accused Gonzalez of misleading a woman by “telling her several fabrications” about Rapelye in order to get her signature, according to court documents.
‘THEY WANTED TO PUNISH ME’: FORMER CITY COUNCILWOMAN’S RETALIATION CASE GOES TO SUPREME COURT:
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Detectives found probable cause to believe Gonzalez intentionally stole the petitions, violating a Texas ban on intentionally removing or destroying government records, according to court documents from the defendants.
The statute is usually used in cases involving fake Social Security numbers, forgeries of official checks and counterfeit green cards, Bidwell said. IJ looked at 10 years of Bexar County data and couldn’t find “anything even remotely similar” to Gonzalez’s case, she added.
Rather than seek a summons for the nonviolent misdemeanor, the special detective took the unusual step of asking for an arrest warrant, the lawsuit contends. The special detective also went straight to a district court judge, circumventing the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.
“They wanted to punish me, and they wanted to make sure I went to jail. And they did a good job,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez turned herself in, was handcuffed, spent the day sitting in jail and had her mugshot splashed across the evening news. Even though the DA’s office dropped the charge, her brief political career was over.
Gonzalez’s lawsuit accuses Mayor JR Trevino and former Castle Hills Police Chief John Siemens of launching a bogus investigation after she says she accidentally placed a petition she spearheaded into her binder. She was arrested for tampering with a public document, but the DA’s office later dismissed the charge. (Courtesy City of Castle Hills)
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Gonzalez sued Trevino, Siemens, special detective Alexander Wright and the city in 2020, alleging they deprived her of her rights under the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Attorneys for Trevino and the other defendants did not return a request for comment.
The city officials invoked qualified immunity, a defense commonly used to shield government officials from liability unless it can be proven that they violated a clearly established constitutional right.
They wanted to punish me, and they wanted to make sure I went to jail. And they did a good job.
A district court judge initially denied the defendants’ immunity, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. In a 2-1 decision, the court determined Gonzalez failed to prove her arrest was retaliatory because she could not cite cases in which other individuals had not been arrested for actions similar to hers.
The 5th Circuit cited Nieves v. Bartlett, which involved police officers making “split-second decisions,” Bidwell said. IJ hopes the Supreme Court will decide that this special protection from First Amendment lawsuits should not be extended to other government officials.
“When it comes to mayors, when it comes to other desk-bound bureaucrats who want to throw their critics in jail, First Amendment comes first, and they should be held accountable for violations of people’s constitutional rights,” Bidwell said.
Gonzalez’s lawsuit alleges Trevino and his political allies tried to have her removed from the city council in a variety of ways, including declaring that she had been improperly sworn in by the county sheriff. The 72-year-old retiree eventually resigned from the council. The city manager whose performance she criticized kept his job. (Courtesy Institute for Justice)
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Gonzalez will have her case heard Wednesday.
Bidwell said Gonzalez’s case could have wide-reaching implications, including in the 2023 police raid of a local newspaper office in Marion County, Kansas. The police chief was allegedly “infuriated” the newspaper was investigating his background, according to a federal lawsuit recently filed in the case.
To hear more from Gonzalez and Bidwell, click here.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.
No. 1 seed Texas (51-12, 16-8 in SEC play) and No. 3 seed Texas Tech (61-8, 21-3 in the Big 12) begin their three-game series at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday in Oklahoma City. Each
Texas
Brazoria County deputy shoots, kills Texas State University student after car chase, report says
BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas – A Texas State University student was shot and killed by a Brazoria County Sheriff’s deputy early Monday morning after an attempted traffic stop in Lake Jackson.
The news was first reported by The University Star, Texas State’s student-run newspaper.
In a Tuesday statement to KSAT, the university identified the student as John Gabriel Mendoza Jr., 18. He was a freshman who studied management, according to the school.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, classmates, and all those affected by this tragedy,” the university said in its statement.
Deputies attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle just after midnight Monday near Farm-to-Market 2004 and This Way Street in Lake Jackson, the sheriff’s office said.
The driver of the vehicle, who was identified as Mendoza by The University Star, did not stop, deputies said. The deputies then chased after the vehicle for approximately a mile into a neighborhood located in the 100 block of Indian Warrior Trail.
According to the sheriff’s office, the driver went inside a home’s garage and parked before a deputy approached the vehicle, the release said.
The deputy then pulled out his firearm and shot into the vehicle. The sheriff’s office said the gunfire struck the driver.
The University Star reported that Mendoza was the one shot. He was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The deputy who pulled the trigger has since been placed on administrative leave in accordance with the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office policy.
KSAT reached out to the Lake Jackson Police Department and the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office for more information, but neither agency has responded at this time.
The shooting investigation is being led by the Texas Rangers, according to a Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office news release.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Texas and Texas Tech will meet in the championship series of the Women’s College World Series in back-to-back years after both teams won semifinal matchups on a scorcher of a day at Devon Park that saw the maximum four games with two “if necessary” showdowns.
Texas has won six elimination games in the NCAA Tournament so far, including two on Monday, to reach its fourth championship series in five years and its third straight. The Longhorns and Red Raiders became the 11th and 12th teams in WCWS history to lose their opener and then reach the finals. This is the first matchup of teams to do that since 2021, when FSU and Oklahoma accomplished the feat.
The Red Raiders return to the championship series after knocking out No. 1 overall seed Alabama, marking their second consecutive appearance in the finals. Kaitlyn Terry and NiJaree Canady worked in tandem in the circle in Game 1 to keep the bats of Alabama’s potent offense relatively quiet, but Canady took it to another level in Game 2, throwing a complete-game shutout. She now has a shutout in each of her four appearances in the WCWS.
“I’m just excited to be able to make it to the championship series again,” Canady said on facing Texas in back-to-back championships. “It’s just a blessing to play them again. It’s good for the state of Texas, showing how good softball is in the state, and I feel like we’re going to get a good turnout.”
“Just so proud of my girls,” Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco said. “They really bought in in the last — I feel like the last 30 days that we just have come together and became a whole different team, and they’re just playing for each other so well now.”
As per usual for the Red Raiders’ stacked lineup, it was a runs-by-committee kind of day, with RBIs from five players: Lauren Allred, Terry, Jasmyn Burns, Taylor Pannell — who both homered — and Mia Williams, whose walk-off in Game 1 kept the Red Raiders’ chances alive. Burns was the sole provider of the offense in Game 2 with a solo home run, her second in as many days. That was all Texas Tech needed to shut out the Tide, though another run scored on an error in the top of the seventh allowed Mihyia Davis to add some insurance.
Alabama’s Jocelyn Briski had been dominant the entire WCWS up until Monday’s first matchup, where she just couldn’t seem to find the zone. She had more control in Game 2, but the Tide’s offense couldn’t figure out Canady despite seeing her in the first game.
NiJaree Canady blanked the Crimson Tide in Game 2 for her fourth WCWS shutout. (Nathan J. Fish / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
“The key today was one inning at a time,” Glasco said. “Play one inning at a time. Even break it down one pitch and go through. Don’t think about 14. Think get the next out, get to the next out, get to the next inning.
“We know that against a great team like Alabama, there’s going to be moments — I told her (Canady) before, you’re going to lose momentum at some point. You’re going to face adversity, and when you do, we’re going to respond really quickly and get it right back in our dugout.
“That adversity happened at the top of the seventh. Just like Oklahoma last year, we lost the lead. Let’s win it in the bottom here. Let’s not mess around and go eight. Let’s get it right now. It took one batter. They’re just really a resilient bunch of young women.”
The Longhorns likewise won both of the necessary games to advance and keep their hopes for a repeat title alive. Teagan Kavan struck out 10 batters — a new career high in OKC — and allowed just two hits in a complete-game shutout, the fifth of her career on this stage, to surpass Texas legend and Olympian Cat Osterman. Tennessee, which defeated Texas on Thursday to open up play at Devon Park, needed just one win to advance, but its offense was shut down by Kavan and Game 1 starter Citlaly Gutierrez, who took a no-hitter into the fourth inning.
Tennessee, undefeated in the NCAA Tournament until this point, had hit a home run in every contest but couldn’t find a rhythm in either game. For Texas, Katie Stewart led the way at the plate, launching her second and third home runs in 24 hours despite an uncharacteristic three errors in the field. Her second home run of the day was her 30th of the season, a Texas program record that also made her the fourth player in Division I this season to surpass the 30-homer mark.
Katie Stewart hit a solo home run in the fifth inning of Game 1 against Tennessee to help Texas advance to the championship series. (Brett Rojo / Imagn Images)
“It’s what coach (Mike) White has put in us all season, just fighting back from losses,” senior catcher Reese Atwood said. “When we came out of the loser’s bracket after the first game, we fought so hard. We’ve had so many key players step up in different places, different roles, and it’s Texas fight. It’s what we do, and we’re going to continue to do going into the championship.”
Texas and Texas Tech have not faced each other so far in 2026, but the Longhorns have historically owned the in-state rivalry with a 58-12 record against the Red Raiders.
Last season, Texas Tech made program history with its first WCWS ticket punched, then came within one game of taking home its first title in a three-game battle against Texas. In the 2025 tournament, Texas and Texas Tech went through the winner’s bracket before facing each other; the first two games of the championship were pitchers’ duels until Texas’ offense exploded in Game 3 to take home the program’s first championship.
Notably, the college careers of Tennessee ace Karlyn Pickens and Alabama seniors Alexis Pupillo and Marlie Giles came to an end. Pickens has made an indelible mark on the sport and leaves behind the record for the fastest pitch recorded in college softball at 79.4 mph. After being drafted No. 1 in the AUSL Draft, Pickens will play professionally with the Carolina Blaze.
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