San Marcos settles ‘Trump Train’ lawsuit
The city of San Marcos has settled a lawsuit over its handling of the October 2020 “Trump Train” incident involving a Biden-harris campaign bus.
The city said it “continues to deny many of the allegations” made in the lawsuit, but acknowledged that the police department’s response to the incident “did not reflect the Department’s high standards for conduct and attention to duty.”
Campaign staffers and volunteers, including former state Sen. Wendy Davis, filed the suit in 2021, accusing the city of not providing assistance or a police escort when the bus was surrounded by a pro-trump caravan on Interstate 35. The lawsuit alleged that members of the San Marcos Police Department laughed and joked about it when they were asked for help during the highway confrontation, and said the department violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
According to a copy of the settlement agreement posted by the Protect Democracy Project, which represented the plaintiffs, they will receive a total of $175,000. The city said in its statement it will contribute $87,500 to compensate the plaintiffs for the incident and for their legal costs. The Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool paid the remaining amount, a city spokeswoman said.
The San Marcos Police Department “has been committed to improving its operations,” the city said, and all employees will attend training that will “remind members of their obligation and role in developing and fortifying community trust and respect in local law enforcement.”
“Citizens and visitors to the City of San Marcos should have confidence in the San Marcos Police Department, and a review of this event has better positioned the Department to more fully meet the community’s needs and expectations,” the city said.
According to the settlement, the training must be offered multiple times over several days, starting no later than next July, and attendance will be mandatory.
The staffers and volunteers were traveling from San Antonio to Austin on Oct. 30, 2020, the final day of early voting in the presidential election. The suit alleged that supporters of President Donald Trump drove recklessly, swerving and braking to try to force the campaign bus off the road. As the bus traveled north on I-35, members of the New Braunfels Police Department escorted the bus after it was surrounded, and communicated with San Marcos police, who did not provide an escort when the bus reached the city, the suit alleged.
“The intimidation we experienced on the highway that day and the threat to our safety, simply for engaging in the political process and supporting the candidate of our choosing, should never happen in this country,” Davis said in a written statement.
In addition to the Protect Democracy Project, the plaintiffs also were represented by attorneys from the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Texas Civil Rights Project attorney Christina Beeler said San Marcos took “a huge step in the right direction” in settling the case, and said she hopes the outcome acts as a deterrent to other law enforcement agencies in the future.
“Cities and law enforcement departments around the country, we hope, will take note that if people violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, they risk not only legal exposure, but also financial and reputational consequences,” she said.
“We feel like our clients have been vindicated here, and that our clients are receiving what they deserve after what happened to them,” Beeler said.
She called the training that San Marcos police employees will receive “a huge win.”
“We want law enforcement all over the country and in Texas to know what election-related violence looks like, and we want them to receive training like this one so that they know how to intervene and when to intervene,” she said.
In addition to suing the city, plaintiffs Eric Cervini, David Gins, Timothy Hollway and Davis named Chase Stapp, the city’s public safety manager at the time, Assistant Police Chief Brandon Winkenwerder and Matthew Daenzer, a police corporal, in the suit. All three still work for the city; Stapp is now an assistant city manager.
The campaign staffers obtained text messages between Stapp, Winkenwerder, Daenzer and other officers. In one text, Stapp wrote “from what I gather, the Biden bus never even exited I-35 thanks to the Trump escort.”
In November 2021, the city released a statement acknowledging “insensitive comments” were made that were not “in keeping with the values of our organization,” and said San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge would address the comments “according to normal disciplinary procedures.”
In July, a federal judge sanctioned the city for failing to preserve phone and email records from a former employee, Cole Stapp, a deputy city marshal who left the department in 2021. Cole Stapp is Chase Stapp’s son, and in a deposition in March, said he believed he received an email request for increased police presence for a political rally “significantly prior to” the day of the incident. The city said Cole Stapp was mistaken, and the only email was sent on Oct. 30, the day of the incident.
A magistrate judge ruled that the city “failed miserably” at complying with an order to preserve phones, phone records, text messages and emails, but found there was no proof the city was motivated by bad faith in failing to keep those records.