by Sahar Chmais Activists and Hays County Commissioners celebrated the passage of a resolution to submit a grant application to fund indigent defense in Hays County. “Approving this application will blaze a positive path forward,” Shannon FitzPatrick, former assistant district attorney and practicin...

By Sahar Chmais HAYS COUNTY – Inside the Hays County Jail, community members reported conditions such as inability to flush toilets, broken walls, lack of airflow, swamp gas inside and no visitors allowed, said Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra. But Sheriff Gary Cutler said that exact nature of Becerr...

By Sahar Chmais HAYS COUNTY – Residents and community activists have been pushing for Hays County Jail transparency, and commissioners listened. The county has launched an online dashboard detailing who is in the Hays County Jail.  The dashboard , provided in partnership with the nonprofit Vera Inst...

By Anita Miller Law enforcement advocates — many of them the wives of officers — were out in force at the Commissioner Court meeting Tuesday urging the elected official not to “defund police,” some taking aim at the proposed FY 2021 budget. “It’s time to stand up and take a stand,” said one, who cla...

Staff Report The possibility of mail-in voting in Texas appears to be dead for the vast majority of the population, but it is assured for one largely-overlooked group of voters – those who are incarcerated. Texas law allows for anyone over the age of 18 to cast a ballot who is not a convicted felon ...

By Anita Miller Kyle resident Bo Camacho is no stranger to the inside of Hays County Jail. At the age of 49, he has a considerable record of 15 arrests stretching back 19 years. Camacho, who is a cancer survivor, is pretty familiar with the process of getting arrested, too. Still, he wasn’t prepared...

Staff Report It didn’t take long for the keys, computer and truck to disappear after a man arrived for work in Buda on July 29, but it didn’t take long to find the suspect either, in part because the vehicle was equipped with GPS tracking. Hays County deputies responded to the 900 block of Canyon Wr...

Weeks after the SWAT team was called to Hays County Jail to quell what a senior officer with the Sheriff’s Office called a “mini riot,” the investigation is continuing with no charges filed. Lt. Dennis Gutierrez said inmates in late June set a fire and used mattresses to block windows and security c...

The plight of inmates in Hays County Jail during the pandemic, most of whom have not been convicted of any crime, was on the minds of several people who spoke up at Commissioners Court’s recently. The remarks came after jail officials acknowledged an outbreak of COVID-19 at the facility. Capt. Julie...

Two members of the same family have died as the result of COVID-19, Hays County officials announced on Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 10. Both the father, in his 70s, and the son, in his 50s, live in San Marcos. As of Monday, the county had seen more than 3,190 confirmed cases, o...