Jury selection began in federal court in Austin today for the trial of four members of the New Braunfels Trump Train who sent dozens of flag-festooned cars and trucks to swarm and chase a Biden campaign bus as it headed north on I-35 from New Braunfels to San Marcos on Oct. 30, 2020.
Joeylynn and Robert Mesaros and Steve and Randi Ceh, who founded the New Braunfels Trump Train, are among six defendants charged with violating state law and the Ku Klux Clan Act of 1871 by organizing a “politically motivated conspiracy to disrupt the campaign and intimidate its supporters.”
They believed then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris was on the bus, traveling from San Antonio to Austin as part of a ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation’ tour staged by Democrats.
Harris was actually campaigning in other parts of Texas.
Aboard instead were former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, former campaign staffer David Gins, and bus driver Timothy Holloway, who filed a lawsuit in federal court in 2021 asking for compensatory and punitive damages. They also say the incident caused psychological and emotional injury.
Joining the plaintiffs are Protect Democracy, the Texas Civil Rights Project and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
The Ceh’s daughter Hannah and husband Kyle Kruger settled the Cervini vs. Cisneros case last year and issued public apologies.
Also charged and in court today are Eliazar Cisneros, a member of the Alamo City Trump Train who drove a black truck that allegedly sideswiped a Biden staffer’s car, and Alamo Trump trainer Dolores Park, who, according to court documents, created a flyer to advertise the event and livestreamed her participation in it.
According to court records obtained by the Texas Tribune, participants in the caravan were “driving within feet of the bus while yelling, making hand gestures, and filming, pulling out in front of the bus from the highway shoulder, and brake-checking the many-ton bus as it attempts to drive down a major highway with people inside.”
Screen grabs from a private Trump Train Facebook page include multiple posts from Randi Ceh, who staged members at the Solms Exit and I-35 frontage road headed north and shared updates about the location of the Biden Bus.
Until last week, Steve Ceh, who founded Canyon Lake’s Solomon Porch Ministries and is chaplain for the Comal County Republican Party, and his wife Randi represented themselves pro se or without legal representation.
They are now represented by Jason Greaves with the Binnall Law Group, who has represented former President Donald Trump in Jan. 6 lawsuits (according to the Texas Tribune) and describes himself on his website as “protecting the reputation of his clients from baseless slander and libel, or defending their First Amendment rights from a defamation lawsuit.”
In a statement published by the Texas Tribune, Greaves said the Cehs anticipate “complete vindication on the merits for exercising their God-given, and First Amendment-protected right to free expression.”
Joeylynn Mesaros, who sells ‘Biden Is the Wurst’ t-shirts to help fundraise for her legal fees, which she said on her website now stand at around $500,000, has since positioned herself as a Bible-thumping free-speech advocate, describing herself on her Facebook page as “surrounded by promises” after a rainbow emerged during a Trump Train “MAGA” rally in New Braunfels on Thursday.
“God didn’t create us to sit on the sidelines,” she posted three days ago. “He instructed us to ‘occupy’ until he returns! And in his great commission, he told us to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to obey everything.”
On Facebook Aug. 27, she asked God to “lift up the jury to you, even though we do not know who the jury is yet. We know that jury summons have gone out to many people and that the selection process to narrow down the jury will take place Friday, Sept. 6. We trust your helping hand in the selection process for a jury with integrity, in pursuit of truth…That wisdom, discernment and understanding would be prevalent in the jury during all proceedings. We pray for your kingdom to be revealed and your will to be done in such a critical place where important decisions are made, impacting every American’s life through the federal court system.”
John Paredes, a litigator for Protect Democracy, sees it differently.
In a statement released Aug. 5 after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, Western District of Texas, denied the Trump Train members’ request for a summary judgment, he said the violence and intimidation his Democratic clients endured on the highway for simply supporting the candidate of their choice is an affront to democratic values.
“Our plaintiffs are bravely standing up against this injustice to ensure that the trauma they endured catalyzes positive change rather than stains our democracy,” he said. “We look forward to our plaintiffs having their voices heard in the halls of justice, and we stand firmly behind them.”
In dismissing the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, which would have canceled the trial, Judge Pitman wrote, “in the months and weeks leading up to the incident, defendants allegedly expressed support for aggressive tactics against Democrats, posing messages that supported making liberals ‘cry’ or driving into a crowd of protesters to ‘instill a little bit of fear.’
Christina Beeler, senior supervising attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said every American has the fundamental right to participate in the democratic process and to support the candidates of their choosing free from fear, intimidation or violence.
In response to Judge Pitman’s summary judgment she said “We’re grateful that our clients finally get to have their day in court to make their voices heard and to hold those accountable who tried to intimidate and threaten them into silence on Oct. 30, 2020.”
The Texas Tribune also reported that last year two of the Trump supporters petitioned the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene.
“Although the court declined, one judge suggested the plaintiffs’ interpretation of the Klan act was overly broad,” a reporter for the Austin-based publication said.
A second lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs against the San Marcos police settled last fall. The police failed to respond to 911 calls from the plaintiffs. As part of the settlement the City of San Marcos paid $175,000 to four plaintiffs and was ordered to train police officers and professional staff about responding to political violence and voter intimidation and ways to develop community trust, an article in the Texas Tribune reported.
Opening arguments in Cervini v. Cisneros are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday in courtroom #4 in the federal courthouse, 501 W. 5th St., Austin.
I’m praying for peace