A small-town political dispute that ended with a Texas city councilman behind bars heads to the Supreme Court this week, where justices will consider whether the councilwoman can sue city leaders for politically motivated retaliation.
“I never would have believed that I would go to the Supreme Court,” Sylvia González told Fox News. “I would never believe I'm in jail either.”
Castle Hills Police arrested Sylvia Gonzalez in July 2019 on charges of tampering with a public document. Now, the Supreme Court will decide whether the grandmother and former city council member can sue city officials for politically motivated retaliation. (Courtesy Institute of Justice)
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González and his lawyers at the non-profit organization. Institute of Justice are suing Castle Hills Mayor JR Trevino and other officials, alleging they conspired to remove her from office in retaliation for criticizing the city manager, violating her First Amendment rights.
“In the United States we don't arrest our critics,” said IJ attorney Anya Bidwell.
Gonzalez's story began in 2019, when the then-72-year-old retiree won a seat on the Castle Hills City Council. He said voters had widely complained that City Manager Ryan Rapelye did not respond, particularly to their concerns about the state of their streets.
In the United States we don't arrest our critics.
As soon as she was elected, González championed a non-binding petition calling for the city manager to be replaced by a previous manager who citizens believed had done a better job. Another resident presented the petition at the first Gonzalez City Council meeting. The discussion about the manager's job performance “became contentious,” according to court records, and the meeting was extended into the next day.
At the end of the meeting, González said he arranged the papers scattered on his podium and put them in his folder before going to speak with a constituent.
A police officer interrupted the conversation and told Gonzalez that Treviño wanted to talk to her, according to court documents. González returned to the stand and Treviño asked where the petition was. Gonzalez said he didn't know. Trevino allegedly asked him to look in her folder, saying he could see a clip inside it.
Security video from May 22, 2019 shows then-Councilwoman Sylvia González removing the petition from her folder at the request of Mayor JR Treviño and a police officer. The non-binding petition called for the reinstatement of a former city manager, who Gonzalez and her supporters said was more trustworthy and dedicated to completing street repairs than her successors. (Screenshot via City of Castle Hills Texas/YouTube)
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In fact, the petition was in the folder, so González handed it in and didn't think about it. But two months later, he learned from a neighbor that there was a warrant for her arrest.
“I didn't even know what they were accusing me of,” González told Fox News. “I had never been to jail… and it was very scary for an old lady like me.”
Treviño and Police Chief John Siemens used the briefly displaced petition to launch a criminal investigation into González, their lawsuit states. Three weeks into the investigation, the police chief assigned a “trusted friend and local attorney” to take on the role of “special detective,” according to Gonzalez's complaint.
The special detective filed an arrest affidavit alleging that Gonzalez had “been openly antagonistic” toward the city manager since their first meeting, “desperately wanting him fired.” The affidavit also accused Gonzalez of deceiving a woman by “telling several lies” about Rapelye to obtain her signature, according to court documents.
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Detectives found probable cause to believe Gonzalez intentionally stole the petitions, violating a Texas ban on intentionally deleting or destroying government records, according to the defendants' court documents.
The statute is typically used in cases involving false Social Security numbers, forged official checks and counterfeit green cards, Bidwell said. IJ examined 10 years of Bexar County data and could find “nothing even remotely similar” to Gonzalez's case, she added.
Instead of requesting a citation for the nonviolent misdemeanor, the special detective took the unusual step of requesting an arrest warrant, the lawsuit contends. The special detective also went directly to a district court judge, bypassing 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 her mugshot appeared on the evening news. Although the district attorney'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 starting a false investigation after she says he accidentally placed a petition she spearheaded in her folder. She was arrested for tampering with a public document, but the district attorney's office later dismissed her charge. (Courtesy of the City of Castle Hills)
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González sued Treviño, Siemens, Special Detective Alexander Wright and the city in 2020, alleging that they deprived her of her rights under the First and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution.
Lawyers for Treviño and the other defendants did not respond to a request for comment.
City officials invoked qualified immunity, a defense commonly used to protect government officials from liability unless they can be shown to have 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 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned that ruling. In a 2-1 decision, the court determined that Gonzalez could not prove that her arrest was retaliatory because she could not cite cases in which other people had not been arrested for actions similar to hers.
The Fifth Circuit cited Nieves v. Bartlett, which involved police officers making “split-second decisions,” Bidwell said. IJ hopes the Supreme Court will rule that this special protection from First Amendment claims should not extend to other government officials.
“When it comes to mayors, when it comes to other bureaucrats who want to jail their critics, the First Amendment comes first, and they should be held accountable for violations of people's constitutional rights,” Bidwell said.
González's lawsuit alleges that Treviño and his political allies attempted to remove her from the city council in various ways, including by declaring that she had improperly sworn in before the county sheriff. The 72-year-old retiree ended up resigning from the council. The city manager whose performance he criticized kept his job. (Courtesy Institute of Justice)
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González will hear his case on Wednesday.
Bidwell said Gonzalez's case could have far-reaching implications, including on the 2023 police raid on a local newspaper office in Marion County, Kansas. The police chief was allegedly “furious” that the newspaper was investigating his background, according to a federal lawsuit recently filed in the case.
To hear more from González and Bidwell, click here.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the attached video.
