A Central Texas water district that tried to act like a homeowners’ association—and sued its critics to shut them up—has been rebuked in court.
The Williamson-Travis Counties Municipal Utility District (MUD), which provides water service to residents in Cedar Park and parts of Williamson County, has for years imposed HOA-style fines on its residents. Homeowners were ticketed for leaving trash cans out too long or failing to maintain their lawns.
In some cases, the district even shut off residents’ water to collect the fines, directing revenue to a private neighborhood association tied to MUD board members.
When citizens raised alarms about misuse of funds and lack of transparency, the district escalated by filing suit. In September, the MUD sued four residents—Linda Fabre, Tina Flores, David Flores, and Sarah Teale—who had been publicly critical of its practices.
The MUD’s directors—Elizabeth Jones, Hanoi Avila, Carrol Norrell, and Christopher Rocco—joined the lawsuit in their official capacities.
Filed in a Williamson County district court, the lawsuit read more like a political attack than a legal petition.
It accused the residents of interfering with contracts, committing assault, and even false imprisonment. It claimed Fabre and Tina Flores “charged the podium” at a board meeting, while Teale supposedly called in a false police report about armed men at a meeting.
The lawsuit also complained about the residents’ online criticism, pointing to a neighborhood Facebook page, posts on Nextdoor, and a website they created called muducation.org. The district accused them of posting “patently false information regarding the board members and contracts,” and even attached a cease-and-desist letter demanding they stop publishing material about the MUD.
On top of that, the MUD asked the court for sweeping injunctive relief, seeking to ban the residents from attending meetings, contacting contractors, or even posting online about the district. Fabre, it claimed, had “maliciously made knowingly false accusations, or with reckless indifference to the truth or falsity of those accusations, against contractors with WTCMUD … such that the contractors were induced to break their contractual relations”.
The residents fought back with motions under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which is designed to stop government bodies and powerful interests from using the courts to silence critics. It allows judges to quickly dismiss lawsuits targeting speech, petitioning, or association unless the plaintiff can present “clear and specific” evidence for their claims. If dismissed, the defendant can recover attorneys’ fees, and the court may sanction the filer.
“It is a bedrock principle of American jurisprudence that governments cannot sue citizens for defamation,” Fabre’s motion declared. “Yet, that is precisely what Williamson-Travis Counties Municipal Utility District seeks to accomplish with this lawsuit.”
Her reply brief called it a “flawed SLAPP [strategic lawsuit against public participation] suit seeking to suppress Linda Fabre’s First Amendment rights,” pointing out that the district was trying to bar her from petitioning government, speaking at meetings, and posting online.
The defense also noted that the MUD had no legal standing to sue on claims like assault or false imprisonment, which must be brought by individuals. “Personal tort claims must be brought by the person who suffered the invasion of a legally protected interest,” Fabre’s attorneys wrote.
The judge agreed and dismissed the case under the TCPA. That ruling not only tossed the MUD’s claims but also set the stage for possible sanctions against the district and could enable the residents to recover attorneys’ fees. As Fabre’s attorneys argued, the MUD’s lawsuit amounted to “classic prior restraints aimed at speech and petitioning”.
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