Bastrop official loses $1M judgment
Jury: Justice of the peace committed real estate fraud, violated state act.
BASTROP — A Bastrop County jury levied a $1 million judgment against Justice of the Peace Donna Thomson, finding that she committed real estate fraud and violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
In a civil case heard in 335th Judicial District Court by visiting Judge J.D. Langley, the jury found that Thomson in 2016 lied to restaurateur Raul Vasquez to induce him to purchase a home she owns in the 200 block of Lamaloa Lane in Bastrop.
Thomson’s attorney, Phillip Slaughter, did not return multiple calls seeking comment. Thom- son recently has been in the news after a judge found that she had lied during divorce proceedings, held her in contempt and sentenced her to jail. She also was indicted last year on accusations that she illegally left the scene of a collision.
According to testimony and documents presented during the fraud trial that ended last week, Thomson misrepresented the home as being “free and clear,” when she actually had a mortgage on the property, Vasquez’s attorney, Jason Snell, said.
A contract shows Thomson agreed to sell the home to Vasquez
for $150,000. Vasquez gave Thomson a $30,000 down payment and was making monthly payments of $1,300, beginning July 29, 2016. Thomson eventually evicted Vasquez, and under the terms of the contract, kept the money he’d paid.
Snell told the court that Thomson made a similar deal with an Austin resident regarding the same property a year prior. The resident, a middle school teacher, testified that she and her fiancé “also fell victim to Judge Thomson’s fraud,” Snell said.
“In my voir dire, opening statement and closing argument, I explained we would be asking this jury to send a message discouraging not just Judge Thomson from this behavior, but anyone else, especially those who hold office and are in a position of public trust,” Snell said in a statement. “The jury responded and awarded exemplary damages of $750,000. I could not be prouder for my client, and of this jury, for standing up and doing the right thing. This was justice.”
The jury on May 2 awarded Vasquez $57,300 for the violations to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, as well as $30,000, since it found Thomson acted knowingly or intentionally, $64,300 in damages and $750,000 as exemplary damages.
The jury also awarded Vasquez $7,000 for home improvements he had made to the property and attorney’s fees.
Thomson had served a 15-day jail sentence in January after a judge found that she had failed to return several firearms to her ex-husband as part of a divorce settlement agreement and had testified she was not in possession of the guns. The court later found that Thomson sold one of the firearms to Vasquez, according to the order of enforcement by contempt filed Jan. 12.
Thomson and her ex-husband “testified under oath that they didn’t have the guns. If they ever pop up with (Thomson) or one of her relatives, it’s going to be a rainy day in her life,” visiting Judge David Squier was quoted as saying during a March 2015 hearing.
At a hearing Oct. 20, 2017, Squier sentenced Thomson to 45 days in jail for the contempt charge and assessed a $45,000 fine for making comments about her ex-husband, Derek Van Gilder, violating their 2014 settlement on three occasions.
At that hearing, Thomson told the judge she was unaware she had the firearms Van Gilder sought until she had recently unpacked boxes of items awarded to her in the settlement. She said those boxes were packed by Van Gilder and delivered to her.
On Jan. 12, 2018, Squier reduced Thomson’s jail sentence from 45 days to 15 days.
In a separate case, Thomson was indicted by a Bastrop County grand jury in May 2017 and charged with “duty on striking unattended vehicle,” after police say she crashed into an unattended vehicle in 2015 and failed to stop and locate the car’s owner.
The charge is a Class B misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. Thomson has said she is innocent.
That case was scheduled for trial Jan. 22, 2018, but it has been postponed, according to county court records.