When at the Somervell County County Annex on Friday, 5/9/2025 I was called from the office of the administrator for the Commissioners Court by a cop and told he was there to issue a criminal trespass warning. I had been, that morning, at the county clerk’s office to ask about audio on the county website and then stopped across the hall to say hello and chat with Evalina Ramos and Christy Covey in their office. To say I was surprised by the actions of the cop would be an understatement but I didn’t understand why this was happening. There was no initial detailed explanation nor any paper showing exactly why. Update: Do you agree, Glen Rose, with Somervell County Attorney Trey Brown that public taxpayer funded offices can become private on his say-so?
Before getting specific with video and pictures, I have two issues about this and you can watch for this during the following. One is that the Somervell County Judge considers, although the Annex is a public, taxpayer funded building, that there are some offices within the Annex that are private and not freely available for the public to enter. or he could not have signed the CT with good conscience. The second is that the County Attorney, Trey Brown, arbitrarily and without benefit of any legal statute or vote by the Commissioners Court, and actually in contravention of the constitution’s Freedom of Speech, decided to make a printed out rule that the public cannot record past X point on SOME public offices, and that he also, without benefit of law decided to say that some public offices are now private. You can read below a plethora of posts talking about those recording signs but let me say IF it violated a law, the law should be on the sign along with the penalty. There isn’t, in my book, because the signs are not legal.
Parts of the following video have been anonymized, but I of course have the full video I took. When I was told by the cop that I was getting a criminal trespass warning, I immediately went to turn on my cell phone camera. The 2 women in the office I was in can confirm that I was NOT recording anything before the cop arrived and talked with me. Obviously the part where he told me the warning and before I turned on the phone is not recorded.
He said “I want you to walk out there right now” while I was in the public hallway. So he was attempting to order me out of where I was standing in a public hallway to leave the building. And this without apparently even understanding at that point why I was being CT’d and what the reason was (he got on the phone at least once, maybe twice, to confer with County Attorney Trey Brown about it) That part is why I think initially he didn’t realize he could not order me out of a public building… and yet did.
It did not occur to me at that point to tell the cop to show me the order to leave the building; to be honest I was angry and somewhat frazzled. I did not receive ANY written materials until about 5 minutes later, outside the building, when another cop, William Resto, wrote out the warning on a traffic ticket form. Seems to me that when I was being told I was being criminally trespassed that I should have received *something* that showed why or a specific, date- related reason this was happening and under what circumstances. Especially because I naturally assumed the CT was due to something I had done THAT SAME DAY and I had done nothing to warrant getting a CT unless anyone that walks into the Annex to the clerk’s office and the secretary office is breaking the law, I had been in NO other offices than the clerk and Evalina’s office, and again, I was NOT recording anything UNTIL I wanted a record of the goofed up announcement by Jeff and pulled out my phone, in the public hallway before being ordered from the building.
This is the warning I got. It’s actually from a traffic ticket form and nowhere explains the reasons behind why this applies to public property
The cop, who I believe was Jeff, said when I asked the reason I was being CT’d said, after conferring with Brown (not initially) , “According to the county attorney… trespasses for all private offices that have no recording allowed. If it’s a public area, you’re welcome to it. …. This is for all private offices that are posted no recording allowed”Again, I was ONLY at the clerk’s office and in Evalina’s office (not private, no sign) and nowhere else when this occurred.
Stopping here to say, since when are public offices, like the commissioners court offices, designated as non-public *private* offices, other than Trey Brown suddenly on that day added an additional whimsical designation for the office space the commissioners or the judge sit in. I can find no instance in the law or any vote by the Commissioners Court to designate some offices as private As the preamble to the Texas Open Records Act says
Sec. 552.001. POLICY; CONSTRUCTION. (a) Under the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government that adheres to the principle that government is the servant and not the master of the people, it is the policy of this state that each person is entitled, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, at all times to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. The provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to implement this policy.
Does Trey Brown or Danny Chambers not believe this?
Jeff further said that the warning indicates that if I go into a private office that posted no recording and start recording, then you violated (could not make it out). Although I was recording at that point on Friday, because I wanted to have a record of this absurd happening, I had NOT been recording until the arrival of Jeff. He further said “it doesn’t matter if you’re doing it right now”. I said I was thinking about going down the hall to say hello to Wade Busch, these people are people I know and are commissioners and you’re saying I would get a warning for going down the hall without recording anybody which is not against the law anyway. “I’ve talked to Alan about this and this is not something that is unlawful… what you’re doing is preemptively giving me a warning for something that I wasn’t even doing. (Adding here that he explicitly told me that recording can occur and is fine anywhere in the building EXCEPT where the offices are *private* (see video)
Have to add about private versus public taxpayer funded offices. If the county wishes to say that some offices are private, they should have to back up why it’s legal to do that, or whether they voted upon it in a commissioners meeting, and put up a sign warning people, very visibly and publicly that the offices a private and also provide supposedly information showing that the office are not public but belong to the particular elected official who supposedly is a public servant, using the office by benefit of us paying for it. I draw a distinction here between someone doing private *activities, in a public office like closing the door for a private meeting. But where a commissioner or the judge, for example, have their doors open and they are sitting there waiting to help serve the community, they are not in a private office. I believe they cannot do this for a public office space that the public owns by dint of being a taxpayer and would be quickly challenged in court if they did that. This is overreach by an over zealous, and, to me, misinformed county attorney.
Here are some photos from Monday 5/12/2025 when I walked around to see if maybe THIS IS A PRIVATE OFFICE had been added to those spurious signs in the hallway or additionally on the walls. . I also, although not posted here, went and took pics of the notices both on the courthouse grounds and in the hallway to see if that type of notice was listed there. Nope!
Here are just a few of the pics I took on Monday. Interestingly, the office that I was in when the cop came up is not private nor does it has a no recording sign. As I mentioned before, it was only AFTER the cop came up and I want into the hall that I turned my phone on, for the purpose to record this interaction that was seeking to serve me with a bogus criminal trespass warning. I’m glad I did.
The cop when I asked again why I was getting a criminal trespass warning when I was not recording anything, said “This may have happened in the past, I don’t know.” So, YOU, reader, understand that I was confused about whether this CT warning applied to that day (Friday) , but even the cop said “It may have happened in the past, I don’t know”. That shows that the cop didn’t even have information on why he was doing this. I said “You said this happened today” and Jeff said “No, I didn’t you were in here today”. I then asked him if there has been something out there for a while, there’s been something that’s been on file. .. So when was this put on file.. Somebody at some point, and maybe it was the county attorney, if she comes back in this building, we will do a CT warning against her, something that I was not aware of.. I was never told Hey, you can’t enter into this thing because you might record something … How it it, today, that you knew I was in the building. … ” Cop -cameras”. Me: Oh, so you’re looking through the cameras and there she is.” Cop: I’m not. Me: “So somebody was, who?” Cop: I don’t know. … I was notified by the county attorney that you were here.me: So the county attorney had decided previously that he would CT me. Cop: County Attorney said that you were to be cTd from all private offices that have posted no recording. me: According to Alan, (West), that’s not against the law but it is against the law to put something that is not even legal to put on the outside of these things. I do not normally ever record anything but I have recorded meetings in the back of the courthouse. .. I have disagreed with the county attorney about those signs that were put up and I still do. I went and talked to Alan about it and he said there’s no law so I said, I could just ignore that and he said yes. We are a one party recording state .. I think you should put on there (on the form) that this involves recording .. those offices are not private… not a convincing argument, frankly.
Also, side note that the cop did not even have a particular date when he could say this happened in the past. I would think that this should have been detailed to show me, on paper, when I expressed confusion.
Have to add that it seems pretty ridiculous to have FIVE cops around me, I must be a really scary little lady. Although, as I said, since I did nothing wrong, I was just angry, I wondered later if this was an attempt by Trey Brown and Danny Chambers to bully and humiliate me?
I then walked back into the building and said “Arrest me”. That includes walking down the public hallway and entering Jeff Harris commissioners court office. NOT arrested. I also then stopped again by Christy’s office, standing in the public hallway, although the election office is NOT a private office, and a cop, Greg Sharp, told me to step away and let them do their business. I said, well I’m not trying to stop them but he appeared to be trying to to prevent me from speaking with them. Should a cop be hanging around in the public hallway to stop EVERY CITIZEN from having a conversation with anyone in an office with an open door?
I then walked down the hall where Danny Chambers was standing before going into his Friday county court. I asked Danny if he was aware that I had been criminally trespassed. His answer: “We probably need to ask Trey that? I asked “Did YOU know about it?” and he replied that he did just a few minutes ago, it was said in his office just a few minutes ago. I told him “I accepted the warning, but I do not believe it’s a warning and I want to take this to court… I haven[t even been around for several months” Danny: “I know and it’s been nice, it’s been nice, I haven’t seen you in six months” me: If I want to come into this building that is public that my taxes pay for “… Danny: “You’re probably right, that’s probably a good time in the courts whether it be in the district or in mine, good place to take that. I’m not an attorney so I can[t give you.. which direction to go”. me: “I talked to Trey about this several times in email about those signs which have no legal reference for them to be there in the hallway of the commissioners… I am recording them. Danny, am I going to be on Facebook again today “. Me I am not on Facebook. (Adding here that that prevents no one, including my hub who does have a FB account, from sharing content on Facebook when someone else DOES have an account but my content is posted HERE and on Youtube. He is an adult, and can operate his Facebook account the way he wants, just as I can post here as I want without interference) Trey could not cite a law, I have never recorded anyone behind their back, but it’s legal to do that if I wanted to, 1 party recording state, I talked to Alan about it, that must have set Trey off because he said Well, go head and sue me. I wasn’t going to do that but now I feel like maybe I will. .. I wanted to know if you’re the person that told him to do this CT warning Danny: I knew about it this morning. Me Did you know about it before the cops came down the hall? “Danny: Yeah, probably a few minutes. (Since Chambers said on video I’m probably right, why did he not spend time BEFORE rubber stamping that warning?Does he rubber stamp anything that Trey Brown says without at least doing a rudimentary check that it is appropriate?)
Note that, according to Alan West, Danny is the one that signed the order to have me CT’d and I assume, although maybe it was Trey Brown, he’s the one that asked for a cop to serve it. According to Alan, who I asked about this on Friday, being able to do that requires a written order from the judge so ultimately he is responsible for this, even though it seems to have sprung from County Attorney Trey Brown. you’ll notice on the video that Danny is not 100 percent transparent about his involvement with this. Actually seems sad to me that a County Judge, while not an attorney, would not make sure the County Attorney had some law to back up his arbitrary signs.
Now, back in August 2024, at the time that Trey Brown, without benefit of law, decided to go put up no recording signs on a few offices, I had an issue with it. I wrote him, several times about this capricious printed paper signs and the back and forth is here, including screen shots of emails, of which I have the full originals.
The absurdity of these Do Not Record signs in the Somervell County Annex (7/25/2024)
Just heard something ridiculous that made me laugh re: recording in Somervell annex
So irresponsible to tell a citizen, without provocation, that they should sue and not careful about the taxpayer money -this last link above also has some recordings I did publicly at some offices that have the sign. If Brown had decided at that point that he thought I should be CT for this, why was this not issued at that point, which was August 23, 2024. OR write something up at that point, and notify me .Brown could have sent an email to me letting me know that he believed I was breaking the law and if I came back in, he would CT me. Felt like he has been deceptively waiting for me to come in the building so he could pounce and why? .Apparently *somebody* was watching all the video camera monitors in Danny’s office. Have to wonder if Brown or Chambers arranged with Kelly, Chamber’s secretary, to watch the cameras and tell either one when they saw me in the building. I had not been in there since Nov, 19, 2024, when I was in Danny Chambers’s office and he was unhappy about me telling him I felt misled by him about an open records request. I was there and certainly, since it was a couple of months AFTER I made some public recordings, that would have been a good opportunity to notify me I would get a CT warning if I came in again. He did not and Brown did not say anything or tell me why he would think I personally was breaking his non-law. Note that I would have vigorously fought about this back in August had I know. (Saying again that Sheriff Alan West told me there was no law to be breaking and that Texas is a one-party recording state AND that the Sheriff’s Dept would not be sending anyone from the sheriff’s office against me on that basis) Therefore, I’m saying that when the cop came to tell me on Friday May 9th that I was being CT’d with a warning, , I naturally expected the he was attempting to do it to me THEN, FOR THAT DAY, May 9, 2025, rather than something that happened months before (Like EIGHT months before)
At this point, while I basically just thought Brown and his signs were weird, unconstitutional and lawless before, at this point I want to sue. I want the CT warning voided, which only Chambers can do, want the lawless signs removed from the hall, and also the nonsense about there being private office space rather than public clarified. I feel bullied for no good reason, for something that is not against the law, ie, I did nothing wrong, and it appears to me that the only way to settle this is to sue, because I believe Trey Brown is wrong but incredibly, he apparently doesn’t think he is and “Rubber Stamp “Danny Chambers, although he apparently agrees with me, was not sturdy and law-abiding enough not to issue a CT warning. One hopes he was not using the power of his office to exact petty revenge over, say, the Pow-Wow video in which he was recorded getting a double finger from Cindy, who then worked for the county at the Expo.
I have some open records requests in right now about this. Update: You can read the replies to me here
This goes specifically to Trey Brown, County Attorney and Danny Chambers
I would like the following sent back to me in digital format to my email
- Documents, including emails, showing that the office locations of the Judge, and County Commissioners, located in the annex of the Somervell County courthouse, are private rather than taxpayer funded public office spaces, along with the justifications for showing that public, taxpayer funded offices can be private, as well as the date when this designation happened..
- Documents from the records of Somervell County Commissioners Court meetings at any time showing that these offices have been designated as private and approved by vote. If done, would like the date of those meetings included. Happy to be directed to a specific vote/meeting on the Somervell County website.
- Any legal documents including from the Texas Local Govt Code or any other authority that Somervell County relies upon to designate public office locations as private, showing that any public office location within the courthouse is private or can be designated as private.
- Any documents or emails showing that if a public office facility can be legally designated as private, under what conditions is the public notified that, for example, visiting the Judge or the County Commissioners is going to a private office, ie restricted, rather than one that al the public can freely enter through an open door or walk down a public hallway to see his her commissioners or judge and that this applies to Somervell County. (For example, there is a badge reader at the end of the Annex hall that restricts entry but I’m unable to find any notification that one cannot otherwise walk into a public office space, door open, with no badge reader) . This includes procedures, sign notifications or barriers or other restrictions are in place to prevent the public from freely entering an office that has been legally and publicly or by vote designed as a private office. (Ie, documents that show how someone would know these offices are private) Happy to be directed to the Somervell County website.
- Documents or emails that discuss why, even though the County property is funded by Somervell County taxpayers, it is acceptable to legally designate some offices as private, most particularly the judges office and commissioners
- Documents/emails that show how the public has been notified that offices previously known as public are now private.
- Documents that show that the commissioners and judge have been notified and are aware that their office locations are private at this time .
- Documents that were sent to the Somervell County Sheriff’s Department to alert them formally that the above office spaces are private, along with the legal justification or county commissioners vote for same.
If the cost of this is beyond $25, please notify me. I would like this information sent back via email
I also have a separate open records request to all the commissioners
I have included the four commissioners on this and would like each to respond back to me individually with digital copies to my email
- Documents, including email, in which you were notified that your office space location is private and no longer a public office, and the date on which you were first notified
- Documents in which you voted on this at a county commissioner meeting to change the status of your offices, including the judge’s office to a private office space and that this item was publicly on the agenda so the public would know, including date(s) of that meeting.
- Documents or emails in which you were notified what types of procedures you should follow to notify the public that your office is now private and they cannot freely enter, including putting up signs, putting up a barrier, requiring that any visitors to your offices must call and get an appointment or go through Evalina or other procedures of restriction. Would like documents also that show the date you were first notified of the procedures to follow to let the public know.
- Documents or email in which you express your own opinion of whether it is appropriate for a taxpayer funded public office to be able to become private.
- Documents that show that actually, because you pay money or lease the space, it is appropriately private.
Thank you
I was not embarrassed that this happened because I knew and know I did nothing wrong but I was angry and a little flustered . This was complete over-reach. However, having a CT warning against me is completely unfair and puts me on notice that if a capricious county attorney (who might that be??) decides to try to stop me from going to see a commissioner, he could sic the cops on me to throw me in jail , etc. It’s unfair that as a citizen I have to worry about being able to enter and exit out of public office space and I do not intend to allow this type of intimidation to occur without fighting this in court. I have been told that Chambers is the one that would have to void the CT order he issued , that Alan West cannot do it. Although Chambers told me (see video) that I’m probably right, it seems to me to be a conflict of interest to take this to his court since he signed an order against me, plus he said something derogatory to me leading me to believe that, as a judge, he would not be neutral and fair. It’s really a shame that the only way, apparently to get elected officials Trey Brown and Danny Chambers to do the right, lawful thing, is to take them to court, but Danny also suggested it. I would prefer that they do the legal, constitutional actions in the first place.
