TRINIDAD, Texas—The police chief has resigned, a municipal judge has been ousted, city workers have been fired, and lawsuits are piling up after police arrested a local woman on felony charges over a Facebook post questioning the safety of the town’s tap water.
Drivers might miss Trinidad if they blink. This small East Texas town of about 800 souls sits at the intersection of state highways 274 and 31—about one-and-a-half hours southeast of Dallas.
It’s a quiet town of weathered ’70s homes with big shade trees where folks can sip iced tea in the summer.
The busiest spot in town is Zippy J’s deli and market at the intersection of the town’s only traffic light. There, the clerk calls customers “honey” and the loudspeakers outside at the gas pumps blare songs about Jesus and good lovin’ gone bad.
But now this sleepy town finds itself in the spotlight over its water and claims that police and city officials want to silence public criticism.
On April 6, Jennifer Combs, who lives in nearby Kerens, in Navarro County, posted concerns about Trinidad’s murky water on her Facebook page, Southern Belle Watch.
“We are receiving reports of possible water quality issues, including concerns about bacteria and unsafe conditions. We take these reports very seriously and are currently verifying the information,” the post reads.
“If your water is discolored, has sediment, odor, or if you or your family have experienced illness you believe may be related, please reach out.”
‘A Tornado of Craziness’
At the local Dairy Queen across from Trinidad City Hall, Combs sat down with The Epoch Times at the end of June to discuss how that post turned her life into a twilight zone.
She said the whole thing started when an elderly Trinidad resident who had already spent $200 on bottled water asked for help getting more.
After publishing her Facebook post asking for information to turn over to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency, Combs said Kerens police knocked on her door on May 8.
“I mean, we all know each other, so I was like, ‘OK, well, they want help doing something,’” she said.
But when the officer told her that she had a felony warrant out of neighboring Henderson County, stemming from a case in Trinidad, she was dumbfounded.
The officer said the arrest warrant had something to do with the water post and causing a panic.
Combs, who had never even received so much as a traffic ticket, wrestled with disbelief.
The officers allowed her to change clothes and then booked her into the Navarro County Jail, where she was held without bail for 23 hours, she said.
When her husband found out that she would have to spend the night in jail because no bail was set, he put money on a card for her to call him.
“I think I called him 70 times. I was freaking out,” she said. “It was an extremely scary situation.”
While in jail, something happened in the men’s cell, and the police maced them, she said. The chemicals drifted through the vent to the women’s cell.
“It was a bunch of coughing and choking, and when I got out the next afternoon, my eyes were swollen shut,” she said. “That’s jail, and I’m sure it was a mixture of crying. I was very upset.”
To make things worse, her grown children tracked her location on an app, which showed that she was in jail.
A flashlight illuminates a sample of Trinidad water in a photo provided by attorneys for Jennifer Combs, in this file photo. Courtesy of CJ Grisham
“Then my phone just starts going off. They’re calling their dad, freaking out, and he’s like, ‘Your mom is in jail,’ and they’re like, ‘There’s no way—my mom’s a goody-goody,’” she recalled.
After she was released, journalists came knocking on her door wanting an interview. Reporters also sought out family members and residents.
She estimated that about 200 reporters came to town, and even her friends as far away as Australia and the UK said they saw her on the news.
“It’s just been like a tornado of craziness,” she said.
‘Political Retaliation’
Then-Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory doubled down on his assertion that Combs broke the law by “spreading false information” on Facebook.
On May 10, Gregory took to Facebook himself, stating on the Trinidad Police Department’s site: “A thorough investigation was done in regards to the arrest made. It was a very cut and dry case.”
However, charges against Combs were later dropped after a Henderson County grand jury declined to indict her later in May.
Combs then filed a civil lawsuit against Gregory, the city, and others for alleged civil rights violations, including violations of free speech, false arrest, and retaliation.
“Trinidad has a lot of issues,” Combs said. “It’s [not just] the water.”
One of her attorneys, CJ Grisham, who specializes in First and Second Amendment cases, told The Epoch Times that it is a quintessential First Amendment case involving protected speech.
“I really hope not only that I get justice for Jennifer in this case, but that this sends a chilling effect to other government agents who think that they can throw people in a cage just because they exercise their First Amendment rights and their opinions that the government might not like,” he said.
“We have plenty of evidence that this was all a concerted effort to silence my client for uncovering and talking about the water problems there that they were trying to cover up.”
Combs’s lawsuit accuses the city and its agents of weaponizing the law to silence a journalist “who dared to inform her community about serious and credible public safety concerns regarding the municipal water supply.”
The complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, states that those concerns were validated when the city of Trinidad issued a boil water notice in April, after Combs wrote the Facebook post.
“Rather than address the water quality crisis, defendants manufactured criminal charges against Mrs. Combs under a statute that, on its plain face, does not apply to her conduct,” the lawsuit alleges.
According to the complaint, Combs was charged under a law that makes it illegal to knowingly initiate a false emergency, such as reporting a fire in a theater or an explosion that requires an emergency response.
“It has no application whatsoever to the act of a journalist sharing community safety information with the public through social media,” the lawsuit states.
Combs did not fabricate an emergency or summon emergency responders or trigger evacuations, the lawsuit states. It further alleges that Combs’s arrest was an act of “deliberate political retaliation.”
Avalanche of Lawsuits
More lawsuits followed Combs’s arrest.
A local citizen, Winston Noles, known as Otto the Watchdog, was arrested for municipal disorder conduct after protesting Combs’s arrest outside city hall with a sign containing an obscenity. He, too, filed a civil lawsuit against the police and the city.
Colby Reyes, former city water clerk, was fired after she allegedly declined to file a complaint about being offended by Noles at the behest of the police chief. Reyes refused, saying that she was not offended.
Grisham and attorney Ryan Franceschina filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of her and her brother, Alex Estrada, who was also fired from his city job.
Municipal Judge Shellena Bivens dropped the disorderly conduct charge against Noles, finding no evidence that the water clerk had been offended by his protest sign. Bivens was then fired by the city.
Grisham and Franceschina sought an injunction to prevent the city from installing another municipal judge, but that effort failed. Franceschina told The Epoch Times on July 7 that an amended complaint had been filed over Bivens’s firing, claiming the city had denied her due process and violated her First and Fourteenth amendment rights.
When The Epoch Times visited Trinidad City Hall in June, the clerk said city officials had no comment on the case. The police chief did not respond to a request for comment before he resigned on June 19.
‘Fix the Water’
She said the entire incident has upended her life, cost her time and money, and hurt her standing in the community.
Dealing with the fallout of the arrest and lawsuit has been a full-time job, she said.
Combs said the arrest led to her removal from the local veterans group board, which she said especially hurt, since she has been an active member of her community and was a past Chamber of Commerce president.
“Nobody wants to have you on their board if you have a mug shot,” she said.
Combs hopes her lawsuit will help right the wrongs in her case. But most of all, she wants the residents of Trinidad to have decent water.
“I want them to fix the damn water,” Combs said.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality confirmed to The Epoch Times via email that it had received complaints regarding Trinidad’s water and that investigations into the allegations are ongoing.
Commission records showed that violations had been issued regarding the city’s water supply, prompting the April 21 boil water notice.
Other violations included failure to conduct chloramine effectiveness sampling and failure to design the distribution system to ensure effective water circulation with a minimum of dead-end pipes. The report found discolored water at those endpoints.
Several violations were resolved, including one regarding total chlorine, according to commission documents.
Water Woes
Retiree Marvin Lorance said he does not think that it was right for police to put Combs behind bars for reporting on the quality of the water that residents “don’t drink.”
“It’s free speech,” he said. “They shouldn’t have arrested her.”
Roxi Lorance, his wife, said that when she called the water department four years ago, they told her that the water was “just dirty” but safe.
The couple said they have been buying bottled water for four years and do not like using the tap water unless it is boiled.
Other residents also told The Epoch Times that they don’t drink the water.
“I buy water,” Donna Stovall, 76, told The Epoch Times.
She has been paying for bottled water for 30 years, she said. She said she thinks that the state needs to come in and thoroughly test the water, noting that her pets have to drink it because she cannot afford bottled water for them.
Stovall said that the water was not bad at the moment, but that when it rains heavily, it tends to turn brownish.
Her adult granddaughter, Lana Stovall, said her grandmother and the entire family use bottled water when cooking.
She hopes her lawsuit will make it easier for others in town to voice their concerns. Like others, she said she does not think that Combs should have been punished for reporting on the situation.
“The lawsuit really isn’t just about me. The lawsuit is about all the other people,” she said. “We live in America; that’s the craziest part about all of this.” Combs said she’s not against the government or the police, but that officers shouldn’t be allowed to arrest someone for speaking out about a municipal water system. As for the path ahead, Combs trusts that her own arrow will lead her “wherever God shoots it.”
