District judge finds Hays County district clerk incompetent after jury summons issue

Sam Stark
·2 min read

HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) —  A Hays County district judge found the Hays County District Clerk to be incompetent following an issue earlier this year when jury summons were not sent out immediately due to an error.

483rd District Judge Tanner Neidhardt summoned Avrey Anderson for a show cause hearing on Tuesday, where he was asked to defend his actions. This was the second time Anderson was summoned since the jury summons incident.

“A month ago, he was issued a show cause for failing to issue jury summons. And at that hearing, he told the court that he had no way of knowing and no indication that the jury summons had failed to go out. That turned out not to be true,” said attorney Thomas Just, who filed a petition to remove Anderson from his role in September because of alleged incompetence.

“Today, he was summoned again for a second show cause hearing in which the judge found that that wasn’t necessarily a lie, but rather, he was incompetent. And he was asleep during the training, where he was supposed to have learned that he could know that the jury summons had failed to go out,” Just continued.

Joanna Salinas, an attorney representing Anderson, told KXAN they were “disappointed this happened and that the judge is so frustrated.” She said the district clerk’s office has changed its procedures to ensure a summons issue does not happen again.

Just, who represents real estate attorney Chloe Love, filed in September a civil lawsuit against Anderson, alleging several incompetencies, including, among other things, failing to deliver jury summons and subpoenas and ineffectively filing grand jury indictments promptly.

Just said Judge Neidhardt’s finding in court today strengthens his petition, which alleges incompetency.

“It goes directly to the fact that he is incompetent to hold the job and goes directly to the suit pending against him to remove him for incompetency,” Just said.

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