San Marcos will pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing its police of ignoring 911 calls from people on a Biden campaign bus traveling from San Antonio as it was harassed by a caravan of Trump supporters before the 2020 election, the Texas Tribune reports.
Also as part of the deal, the city’s police and professional staff must be trained on how to properly respond to voter intimidation and political violence, according to the Tribune, which obtained a copy of city’s settlement agreement on Wednesday.
The suit, filed in 2021, accused members of the San Marcos police force of ignoring and joking about distress calls from Democratic campaigners as they tried to make their way from San Antonio to Austin on I-35. In their petition, the four plaintiffs — who include former Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis — said the swarming “Trump train” swerved dangerously near their bus, forcing it decelerate to a crawl.
The highway confrontation made international news and led Texas Democrats to cancel scheduled campaign events as a safety precaution. Widely circulated video of the incident shows that it led to at least one minor traffic collision.
San Marcos officials offered no immediate comment on the settlement, according to the Tribune. However, the agreement obtained by the news outlet requires the city to issue public comment within three days.
Three San Marcos law enforcement officials named in the settlement are still employed by the city, the Tribune also reports. Those are police corporal Matthew Daenzer; Chase Stapp, San Marcos’ former director of public safety and current assistant city manager; and Brandon Winkenwerder, an assistant police chief.
The suit alleged that the refusal of San Marcos police to assist people on the campaign bus violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. That legislation requires authorities to intervene to halt acts of violent political intimidation.
A separate civil suit accuses eight alleged participants in the Trump caravan of violating campaign workers’ civil rights. Two of those defendants settled in April, and a court trial is expected to get underway in spring of 2024.
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This article appears in Oct 18-30, 2023.