Jennifer Combs says she never set out to become the face of a fight over free speech, dirty water and small-town power. She says she was simply trying to help people in Trinidad, Texas, report problems with their water. Some residents had complained about discoloration, sediment, odors and health concerns. So Combs used her Southern Belle Watch Facebook page to collect reports and send them to the state.
Then, according to Combs, the situation took a turn that still sounds hard to believe. She says police came to her home and arrested her on a felony warrant over a Facebook post.
Combs says the post was later removed by Facebook after it was reported by a select group of people from the community and flagged, though she says Facebook did not tell her why. But before it came down, she says, then-Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory had taken a screenshot of it and posted it on the Trinidad Police Department Facebook page, accusing her of making a false report.
Then she was handcuffed in her front yard.
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/texas-mom-jailed-dirty-water-facebook-post
A whole lot of people fired and arrested in this little town of 800.
– A judge who approved a search warrant that led to the arrest of a Henderson County resident over a Facebook post concerning Trinidad’s water supply says he was misled by the Trinidad Police Department. Judge R. Scott McKee sent a letter to outgoing Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory that questions “the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of information presented” by his officers when he approved the warrant.
– The woman arrested has since filed a lawsuit against the city after her charges were dropped, while the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is investigating the city’s water supply.
– Police Chief Gregory responded by saying Combs’ post “creates fear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community.”
– One day after FOX 4’s initial report on Combs, citizen journalist Winston Noles protested outside Trinidad City Hall with a sign with expletives targeting “bad cops.” Noles was arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for the sign. The Trinidad Municipal Judge, Shellena Bivens, later dismissed the charge.
– Reyes, the former Trinidad Water Clerk, says in the lawsuit that she was fired because she “refused to lie” on behalf of Gregory and City Administrator Cynthia Dosier.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/judge-approved-warrant-controversial-trinidad-013323276.html
h/t Doctor Congo