Jury acquits all but one defendant in Texas Trump train trial

Sign up for The Brief, the Texas Tribune's daily newsletter that keeps readers up to date on the most important news in Texas.

A jury in Austin acquitted all but one of Donald Trump's six supporters. The defendants were accused of violating federal law when they surrounded a Joe Biden campaign bus traveling on a Texas highway just days before the 2020 election.

The seven-member jury, which deliberated most of Monday, said only one of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 when the so-called Trump Train – a nickname for caravans showing their support for the former president – drove toward the bus heading north on Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin on Oct. 30, 2020. The group, which included dozens of vehicles on the highway that day, forced the bus to slow to walking speed.

Cisneros was ordered to pay $30,000 in punitive damages to the plaintiffs and $10,000 in compensatory damages to the bus driver, Timothy Holloway. Cisneros' attorney asked the judge to throw out the verdict after it was announced. If the judge rules against Cisneros, he can appeal the jury's decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Both plaintiff and defendant viewed Monday's verdict as a victory.

“Praise be to God,” defendant Steve Ceh told reporters outside the courtroom.

Joeylynn Mesaros, another defendant, said she felt vindicated after she believed the lawsuit was a group of Democrats attempting to suppress the speech of those they disagreed with.

“Considering that the odds were deliberately stacked against us and the trial was rigged, I was pleased that the jury was able to see through that,” Mesaros said. Her attorney said they would file a motion to have her legal fees covered by the plaintiffs. She estimates that she and her husband, Robert Mesaros, another defendant, spent between $200,000 and $300,000 on the case.

Even outside the courthouse, the plaintiffs and their lawyers said they were satisfied with the jury's decision.

“Each of us had a single interest in mind, which was to make sure that in future elections, people understand that it is not acceptable to intimidate, harass and threaten people who want nothing more than to exercise their right to support the candidate of their choice,” said former state Sen. Wendy Davis, who was one of the plaintiffs.

Christina Beeler, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represented the plaintiffs, said they were pleased the jury awarded punitive damages, saying it “sends a message to the public that threats, intimidation and violence have no place in American elections.”

“Today’s verdict is a victory for our clients and a victory for American democracy,” she added.

Holloway, Davis and another bus passenger, former Biden campaign staffer David Gins, sued several members of the Trump caravan in 2021, accusing them of participating in a conspiracy to disrupt the campaign in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act. The incident prompted the Biden campaign to cancel campaign stops in San Marcos and Austin.

Over the past two weeks, plaintiffs’ attorneys have tried to convince the jury that the six defendants who were part of the “Trump Train” were deliberately trying to intimidate the bus’s passengers.

“To dangerously surround someone on the highway, no matter who, Republican, Democrat, no matter who, and force them out of town is not OK, it has no place in Texas, it has no place in America and it has consequences,” attorney Samuel Hall told jurors in his opening statements in the trial.

The plaintiffs' attorneys had to prove that the defendants were part of a conspiracy to deter one or more people from supporting or campaigning for a candidate for federal office. They also had to prove that the defendants' actions influenced the plaintiffs. The three plaintiffs said the incident on I-35 caused them emotional distress, caused anxiety, depression or insomnia, and made it difficult for them to perform some of their duties at work.

Throughout the trial, the defendants and their lawyers insisted there was no conspiracy. Although they had all participated in Trump Trains in the run-up to the 2020 election, they did not know each other before or during the incident and had no intention of threatening, intimidating or harming those on the Biden bus that day, they said.

Erin Mersino, an attorney for defendant Dolores Park, told jurors in her closing argument that Park's behavior on the day of the incident may have been “odd” but did not constitute a violation of the law.

“It may not be sympathetic. It may not be their proudest moment. But it is not a violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act,” she said.

But the plaintiffs said the way the Trump supporters' vehicles surrounded the bus – slowing it to 15 mph on I-35 while other drivers honked at them – made them feel like they were being “taken hostage.”

“We didn’t know who they were or what they were capable of,” Davis testified at the start of the trial.

Jerad Najvar, an attorney for Joeylynn and Robert Mesaros, told The Texas Tribune that his clients waited three years to put the events of October 30 into proper context, adding that the entire situation had been “taken out of context and the language was cold.”

The Mesaros began attending Trump Trains in New Braunfels to show their support for Trump, they testified during the trial. The New Braunfels Trump Trains were organized by two other defendants, Steve and Randi Ceh. Cisneros and Park also participated in the Alamo City Trump Train several times in the lead-up to the election.

Two other defendants named in the original lawsuit settled their case last year. The terms were not made public, but they have publicly apologized for their involvement.

“Looking back, I would have done things differently. I don't think I was thinking properly at the time, and I apologize to the passengers on the bus for my role in the actions that day that frightened or intimidated them,” Hannah Ceh, daughter of defendants Randi and Steve Ceh, wrote in her apology.

The plaintiffs also filed a second lawsuit against the San Marcos Police Department, accusing the police of ignoring the attack. The city reached a settlement with the plaintiffs last fall. As part of the settlement, San Marcos police officers and staff must receive training on how to respond to political violence and voter intimidation and how to build public confidence. The city paid $175,000 to four plaintiffs.