Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO – Over the past month, KSAT 12 has been investigating the relationship between the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office and the Wren Collective, a criminal justice reform group based out of Austin. KSAT 12 originally unearthed hundreds of pages of text messages between Gonzales, his staff and the founder of the Wren Collective, Jessica Brand, through a public information request. Now, we’ve obtained more than 400 pages of emails between Brand and Gonzales’ personal email that suggest Brand played a larger role at the DA’s office than Gonzales has admitted. Since our first report on Jan. 30, Gonzales...

A Texas sheriff’s department has recommended that the district attorney in Bexar County bring criminal charges after completing its investigation into the first iteration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called migrant relocation program. Those flights sent 49 asylum seekers, most of them Venezuelans, from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, last September. According to a statement provided to the Miami Herald, the Bexar County Sheriff completed its criminal investigation into the on-the-ground operation that allegedly lured migrants onto the flights with false promises of jobs and opportunities on the other end. “The case filed includes both felony and misdemeanor charges...

VIDEOS AT LINK..................... San Antonio Police, today, released video from an officer-involved shooting that occurred on Sunday, October 2, 2022. Below is a brief synopsis of the critical incident: At around 10:30 p.m. Sunday evening, an officer handling a disturbance at the McDonald’s at 11700 Blanco Road noticed a vehicle in the parking lot he believed had fled from him during an attempted stop the night before. The vehicle, which was not related to the disturbance call, was occupied by a male, 17-year-old driver driver, and a female passenger. The Officer abruptly opened the driver’s door and ordered the driver...

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, who opened a criminal investigation this week into migrant flights to Martha's Vineyard, said Tuesday that the solution to the ongoing migrant crisis is to open up more legal pathways for people to come to the United States. "At some point, you’re going to have to embrace that this is happening to a certain extent. I would say, look, you’ve got people who want to work… and you've got a shortage of workers," he told CNN on Tuesday. "Hire these folks. Give them the opportunity to work legally, and then make sure that the employers...

Bexar County's prosecution-minded sheriff is but a pawn in a much bigger leftist game to drive Gov. Ron DeSantis from higher office. Just yesterday, Texas sheriff Javier Salazar announced that he is investigating the legality of Gov. Ron DeSantis's flying of illegal migrants to Martha's Vineyard. Salazar is a Democrat, but, like all Democrats, he insists that his probe has nothing to do with his political affiliation. Salazar said the following: Somebody saw fit to come from another state, hunt them down, prey upon them, and then take advantage of their desperate situation just for the sake of political theater,...

MIAMI – A Texas sheriff has opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to fly a group of migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, his agency tweeted Monday evening. Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, held a news conference on the migrant flight Monday. Salazar is a Democrat, while DeSantis is a Republican. “The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation into the migrants that were lured from the Migrant Resource Center, located in Bexar County, TX, and flown to Florida, where they were ultimately left to fend...

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Deputies have arrested a second person in connection with a viral video showing two women driving around and recklessly shooting in a west Bexar County neighborhood, with some of the bullets even going through a child’s bedroom, according to the sheriff’s office. Fugitive Apprehension Unit deputies arrested 20-year-old Julia Castillo Gonzalez around 2 p.m. Friday in the 700 block of West Hollywood. BCSO officials said deputies were dispatched to Westcreek View Street at night on Aug. 24 after several witnesses reported hearing gunshots ring out. As investigators uncovered more evidence, they came across a viral video...

SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County leaders will study whether Elon Musk's Boring Co. can drill a 9-mile tunnel where automated Teslas would ferry people between the airport and downtown. Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) board members voted Wednesday to negotiate a project plan with the billionaire's company. "The board has continually sought innovative ways to finance transportation projects to ensure a bright future for the community in a way that bridges technology and accelerates the delivery of needed projects," chairman Mike Lynd said in a statement. "Today's board action is the first of many discussions," he added. Musk's company already...

A detention lieutenant was fired from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas for attending the Trump rally in DC on January 6, even though she never entered the Capitol. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, who fired Roxanne Mathai for attending the rally, campaigned for Joe Biden during the 2020 election. Mathai had posted about being at the rally on social media, but never entered the building. She even specifically posted that she had no desire to enter the building and break the law. Though she was simply exercising her First Amendment rights and attending a rally hosted by the...

<p>Editor’s note: This story is part of an investigative series about the criminal case against ex-Constable Michelle Barrientes Vela. The series culminates with “Downfall,” an hourlong special report that airs on KSAT 12 on March 25 at 9 p.m.</p><p>At first glance, the story of Michelle Barrientes Vela had all the trappings of a political fairy tale. Once an unpaid, reserve deputy at Bexar County Constable’s Office Precinct 2, Barrientes Vela became the elected Constable after winning the 2016 election. She finished second among five Democratic candidates in the March primary that year, then won the run-off held two and a half months later. That November she captured more than 66% of the vote on her way to joining a shortlist of women to serve as constable in Bexar County.</p>

<p>AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Texas District Court judge refused to grant the State of Texas an emergency, temporary injunction on Friday, meaning the mask mandate from Austin and Travis County will stay in place for at least two more weeks.</p>

Some people go to jail because they break the law. Sylvia Gonzalez landed in a Texas slammer because she criticized her local government. Now the 74-year-old retiree is fighting back, trying to bring accountability to a system that too often lets public officials off the hook when they violate people’s civil rights. Gonzalez’s ordeal started with a simple desire to help her community by serving on the Castle Hills City Council near San Antonio. She knocked on doors and talked to more than 500 neighbors during her campaign, and what she heard strengthened her resolve to make a difference. “They...

A Bexar County jury on Wednesday acquitted Ezekiel Gilbert of murder in the death of a 23-year-old Craigslist escort. Gilbert, 30, embraced defense attorneys Bobby Barrera and Roy Barrera Sr. with tears in his eyes after the not guilty verdict was read aloud by state District Judge Mary Román. Outside the courtroom, Gilbert thanked God, the Barrera family and the jury for being able to “see what wasn't the truth” and for the “second chance.” Had he been convicted, he could have faced up to life in prison for the slaying of Lenora Ivie Frago who died about seven months...

Five foreign men were arrested during a courthouse break-in early on Wednesday and police said they found photographs of public buildings, water systems and malls from various U.S. cities in their van. The men, at least three of whom were in their 20s, will be questioned by a joint terrorism task force including the FBI and immigration authorities, officials said. Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse said three men were found inside the 120-year-old Bexar County Courthouse, a landmark in downtown San Antonio and two in a large recreational vehicle parked in front of the building. She said all five were...

A veteran Bexar County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot during an apparent ambush while waiting at a traffic light in his marked patrol vehicle early Saturday, according to the San Antonio Express. Forty-five-year-old Sgt. Kenneth Vann was waiting at an intersection just after 2 a.m. Saturday when a small white vehicle pulled up next to him on the right side and started shooting through the front passenger window. Witnesses called police, who discovered Vann dead in the driver's seat.

Democratic leader ignores resignation demandBy John W. Gonzalez Published 05:15 p.m., Monday, March 14, 2011 The head of the Texas Democratic Party is demanding the resignation of Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Ramos, accusing him of bigotry and creating chaos since his election a year ago. Citing complaints from local partisans, state Chairman Boyd Richie said Ramos should step aside so the party can “move forward with new, more unifying leadership.” Richie rescinded a request to meet with Ramos, saying that would not be useful. Richie issued his statement Saturday, the day after a news blog posted comments by...

Former Bexar County Democratic Party Treasurer Dwayne Eugene Adams was indicted Wednesday on charges that he embezzled and misused about $202,000 of party funds. Adams, 55, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of theft between $100,000 and $200,000 and misapplication by a fiduciary between $100,000 and $200,000. Each charge is a second-degree felony. The grand jury action came as little surprise, Democratic Party officials acknowledged. Prosecutors with the white-collar crimes division of the Bexar County district attorney's office had interviewed more than 20 people — including former party chair Carla Vela and numerous deputy chairs —...

St. Hedwig has homes on large lots and a longtime tradition of rural living. And folks there want to keep it that way. “We want to be able to maintain as best we can the reason we moved out here in the first place,” said Kathy Palmer, the city’s planning and zoning commissioner. But a new master plan and recently updated zoning maps are no match for a proposed route of Trans-Texas Corridor 35 that would slice straight through the city of about 2,000 people and create headaches for several city departments, officials said. With neighboring Wilson County, St. Hedwig...

Member of the Texas Sunset Commission today recommended 'radical' changes in the administration of the Texas Department of Transportation, including placing the troubled and controversial agency into a four year legislative 'receivership' and abolishing the Texas Transportation Commission, which runs TexDOT, and appointment of a Transportation Commissioner who would be answerable to the Legislature, 1200 WOAI news reports. But Sunset Commission member Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) suggested going one step further. "What I am hearing form the public is that they are wanting to see an elected commissioner," she said to loud applause from the TexDOT opponents who...

Toll road opponents today will ask the Sunset Advisory Committee of the Texas Legislature to abolish the Texas Department of Transportation, saying the agency has become too corrupt and too dysfunctional to fix, 1200 WOAI news reports. "We want to see elected leadership at the helm of Tex-DOT," says long time toll road opponent Terri Hall, the founder of the citizen action group Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. "We are done with this unelected beaurocracy that is just an arm of private road building companies and the lackeys of this governor." The idea of eliminating TexDOT and establishing a...