Free Republic

On October 4th, Nathan Buchanan, Republican candidate for Bexar County Sheriff, caught a woman allegedly stealing his campaign sign off a supporter’s yard. As seen in the video above, Buchanan pulls up and finds the woman attempting to remove his sign from a supporter’s yard. The woman is wearing a Harris/Walz shirt and argues that the sign is placed illegally. The woman eventually leaves the sign and speeds off. Buchanan later follows her to her house and finds a sign for his opponent, Javier Salazar, in her yard along with a Harris/Walz sign. We spoke to Nathan Buchanan who confirmed...

Democrat District Court Judge Antonia Arteaga struck down a legal attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to halt Bexar County’s push to mail voter registration forms to over 200,000 unregistered voters. The lawsuit, filed by Paxton on the heels of Bexar County’s September 3 decision, sought to prevent the county from working with Civic Government Solutions to distribute unsolicited voter registration forms. Paxton contended that such an action was not only illegal but a blatant effort by Democrat-led counties to sway voter turnout in their favor by bypassing standard registration processes. Despite the clear warning from Paxton’s office, Bexar...

SAN ANTONIO - Two teenagers were arrested in connection with several shootings recently around Joint Base San Antonio where several suspects fired numerous rounds at Air Force Security personnel at the gate. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said Joseph Anthony Jimenez, 19, and Ricardo Samaniego, 19, were arrested and charged with deadly conduct with a firearm after a multi-agency investigation that included the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or ATF. Two shootings happened on Aug. 17 near JBSA-Lackland gate off Medina Base Road. The first shooting...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened two of the state’s most populous — and Democratic-leaning — urban counties with lawsuits over their plans to register voters by mail. Paxton wrote letters Monday to Harris and Bexar counties, claiming their mailing of voter registration forms would either “confuse” noncitizens about their eligibility to vote, or “induce” them to fraudulently register. “Either way, it is illegal, and if you move forward with this proposal, I will use all available legal means to stop you,” Paxton wrote. The attorney general pointed to his 2020 suit against a similar effort to send out vote-by-mail...

Bexar County Sheriff’s lieutenant, who was fired from her job after posting pictures from the Jan 6 Capitol protest, has secured a $395,000 legal settlement. The county’s insurer will pay Roxanne Mathai the federal out-of-court settlement.

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.