Castle Hills City Council on Wednesday voted to approve a settlement with former member Sylvia Gonzalez in what her attorneys called a “final victory” in her fight against what she described as politically motivated retaliation.
Neither the city nor attorneys representing Gonzalez publicly disclosed the settlement amount.
“The First Amendment doesn’t come with handcuffs,” Gonzalez’s attorney Anya Bidwell said in a statement. “This outcome sends a message to officials everywhere: if you retaliate against critics, you can be held to account.”
Gonzalez was elected to Castle Hills City Council in 2019 after running on a platform to remove then-City Manager Ryan Rapelye, whom some residents of the North Side suburb blamed for failing to repave city roads and ignoring the public’s concerns.
During her first meeting, Gonzalez introduced a 300-signature petition to Mayor J.R. Treviño to remove Rapelye, one of his political allies.
Following the meeting, Trevño accused Gonzalez of mishandling government documents after she accidentally picked up the petition and put it in her binder. Following a two-month investigation into the matter by the Castle Hills police department, Gonzalez was arrested and charged with intentionally destroying, concealing or impairing the verity, legibility, or availability of a government record — a misdemeanor.
Gonzalez, a grandmother in her 70s, also spent the night in jail.
The charges against her were later dropped. However, Gonzalez lawyered up, arguing that the entire mess was political retribution. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, ruling that courts can look at objective evidence — such as unusual, selective enforcement of laws — to prove an arrest was retaliatory.
The Supreme Court then sent the case back to a lower court, which resulted in Wednesday’s vote by the council.
“Those who went after me have been held accountable,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “I didn’t do this just for myself. I’m proud that this win will make it easier for ordinary people to stand up when officials try to punish them for speaking out.”
Meanwhile, Rapalye tendered his resignation earlier this year. He’s now city manager of Garden Ridge, another North San Antonio bedroom community.
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