Emilie Eaton

Ramon Najera's widow, along with his adult children, allege in a new lawsuit that Animal Care Services is responsible for the dog attack that killed him.

AI could soon surveil downtown S.A. But what about facial recognition?

Florida lawyer admits bombing Lenin-Mao sculpture in San Antonio

Federal Express and United Parcel Service bear responsibility for the suffering of children who were in a Uvalde elementary school during a mass shooting two years ago because the companies shipped the gunman an assault rifle and an enhanced trigger system, according to a new lawsuit. “The Plaintiffs assert that the actions of UPS (and) Federal Express … caused the delivery and the modification of a weapon into the hands of a person likely to act as a school shooter,” the lawsuit states. “The De…

A San Antonio police officer was fired after officials say he took two shotguns and one handgun forfeited by residents during a city gun buyback program and placed them in his personal vehicle. Two of the weapons were never recovered. Officer David Mahula, an 18-year veteran of the force, was issued an indefinite suspension, which is tantamount to firing, on May 9 for allegedly breaking a handful of department administrative rules, according to disciplinary records. Mahula, in an appeal filed M…

Former S.A. firefighters union president accused of stalking

Prosecutors preparing for the trial of three fired San Antonio police officers charged in the fatal shooting of Melissa Perez are seeking records about her mental condition in the years leading up to her death. Defense lawyers for the three ex-officers want to see the records, too. Perez, a 46-year-old mother of four, was killed June 23 during a confrontation with police at her Southwest Side apartment. Officers were dispatched after a neighbor called 911 to report that Perez had cut the wires t…

KSAT reporter John Paul Barajas has lost his driving privileges for six months while he awaits trial on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Barajas was issued a license suspension by the Texas Department of Public Safety on Nov. 5, the day he was arrested and charged with DWI. He appealed to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, and presiding Administrative Law Judge Ian Spechler ruled in January that DPS had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that a 180-day suspension was warran…

The former San Antonio police officer accused of shooting and critically injuring 17-year-old Erik Cantu in 2022 will stand trial in San Antonio, despite his lawyers’ claims that extensive negative media coverage had tainted the jury pool. A judge on Wednesday morning denied James Brennand’s motion for a change of venue. The ex-officer is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant and deadly conduct, both felonies. Brennand’s defense team filed the change-of-venue motion in October, ar…

James Brennand, the fired San Antonio police officer under indictment for shooting and critically injuring 17-year-old Erik Cantu in 2022, is no longer facing an attempted murder charge. A Bexar County grand jury initially charged Brennand with two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant, both first-degree felonies, and one count of attempted murder, a second-degree felony. But last week, a grand jury issued a new indictment. A copy was served on Brennand during a court hearing Monday.…

Former Air Force Reserve Maj. Andre McDonald, convicted of killing his wife in 2019, is scheduled to stand trial again this month — in a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in punitive damages. The family of the woman he killed, Andreen McDonald, a San Antonio businesswoman and the mother of their 7-year-old daughter, filed the lawsuit in 2022. It was initially scheduled for trial in August but was postponed until this month. Jury selection was set to begin Tuesday morning. An…

Lawyers for a former San Antonio police officer charged with aggravated assault in the shooting of teenager Erik Cantu want District Attorney Joe Gonzales to hand over communications between his office and an Austin-based consulting firm that seeks to overhaul the nation’s justice system. The defense team for fired officer James Brennand filed a subpoena Tuesday seeking text messages, emails, social media messages and recorded conversations about the shooting between the DA’s staff and the Wren…

Long before the San Antonio fire chief made comments about female genitalia, Hood allegedly made insensitive remarks about Native Americans and white people.

Two former San Antonio police officers have been indicted on charges of murder in the fatal shooting of Melissa Perez, a 46-year-old mother of four who relatives say was suffering a mental health crisis when police confronted her at her apartment on the Southwest Side in June. A Bexar County grand jury indicted former Sgt. Alfred Flores and former officer Eleazar Alejandro on murder charges. A third officer who was at the scene, Nathaniel Villalobos, was charged with aggravated assault with a de…

James W. Jordan III had just completed an Alaskan cruise and was disembarking in Seattle when the ship’s security officers arrested him in front of his family. Jordan, then 50, of San Antonio, was wanted on a felony warrant out of Bexar County for the alleged theft of a piece of construction equipment. He spent three days in the King County (Wash.) Jail and says he told every law enforcement official he saw that they’d made a terrible mistake. They had the wrong James W. Jordan, he insisted. Now…

A retired deputy Dallas police chief testified that a San Antonio officer dismissed for using excessive force against a suspect — firing a stun gun and later lifting the handcuffed man off the ground by his arm — had ways to “de-escalate” the encounter but didn’t use them. Craig Miller, a use-of-force expert retained by the city of San Antonio, said then-SAPD Officer Andre Vargas could have held the suspect at gunpoint and waited until backup arrived. Miller also said Vargas, who ordered the su…

Prosecutors have dismissed a felony assault charge against one of two San Antonio police officers accused of barging into a suspect’s East Side home, tackling him and repeatedly punching him in January 2020. The second officer charged in the case still faces prosecution. Former SAPD officers Thomas H. Villarreal and Carlos M. Castro had both been charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, a first-degree felony. If convicted, the former officers faced up to 99 years or life in prison. O…

The civil rights lawsuit filed by a Black man who alleged that San Antonio police officers wrongly arrested him after confusing him with a domestic violence suspect should conclude without a trial, a U.S. magistrate judge recommended this month. U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry J. Bemporad sent his recommendation to a San Antonio federal judge, who can approve the recommendation or reject it and issue his own ruling. Bemporad sided with the city in his recommended ruling, issued last week. It comes…

KSAT reporter John Paul Barajas, who was arrested and charged with DWI on Sunday, has hired two well-known defense attorneys who specialize in drunken driving cases to represent him. Barajas, who turned 29 on Saturday, was pulled over around 2 a.m. Sunday on Interstate 10 westbound on the Northwest Side after an officer saw him driving 82 mph in a 65-mph zone, changing speeds suddenly and drifting in and out of lanes, according to a police affidavit. After pulling him over, the officer noted tha…

A mistrial was declared Friday in the case of two San Antonio police officers accused of barging into a suspect’s East Side home, tackling him and repeatedly punching him in January 2020. Carlos M. Castro and Thomas H. Villarreal were charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, a first-degree felony. If convicted, the former officers faced up to 99 years or life in prison. The mistrial comes more than three years after Castro and Villarreal, then active police officers, forced their wa…