San Marcos settles lawsuit over law enforcement response to 2020 'Trump Train' incident

Colin McLaren, an advance staff member for the Biden-Harris campaign in Texas, speaks to Democrats at Vera Minter Park Wednesday in downtown Abilene on Oct. 28, 2020. Days later, the bus was involved in a highway altercation with Trump supporters.

The Texas Tribune obtained a copy of the settlement Wednesday that was signed by the staff members named in the lawsuit and City Manager Stephanie Reyes. The officers named remain employed by the city. They are San Marcos police corporal Matthew Daenzer; Chase Stapp, San Marcos’ former director of public safety and current assistant city manager; and Brandon Winkenwerder, a an assistant police chief.

According to the settlement, the city is also required to issue a public statement within three days. In the days after the incident, Trump praised his supporters’ behavior, which occurred months before the former president’s backers violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of his reelection loss. The Klan law was also cited in the federal lawsuit against Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“No, we’re not going to do it,” Daenzer told a 911 dispatcher, according to the amended filing. “We will ‘close patrol’ that, but we’re not going to escort a bus. While Stapp, the then-public safety director, told the Biden supporter that San Marcos police would send backup, he did not order an escort. The complaint said he sent the information to Winkenwerder, the assistant police chief. Winkerwerder also did not order an escort or assistance, the complaint alleges. Instead, he told officers to “close patrol” the area near the university.

“No, we’re not going to do it. We will ‘close patrol’ that, but we’re not going to escort a bus,” Daenzer responds. “If you feel like you’re being threatened or your life is threatened, definitely call us back,” she told him. When Cole Stapp called 911 dispatch to relay the message that the Biden event in San Marcos was canceled, he did not share that the bus needed help, according to another transcribed audio recording in the amended filing.

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