GALVESTON – Three Galveston County men filed a class action lawsuit against the City of Santa Fe on allegations it is raising revenue by unconstitutionally jailing local residents, according to recent Galveston federal court records.
George West, Robert Jones, and Brady Fuller claim in court papers filed on Nov. 3 that Santa Fe imprisons individuals who could not afford to pay fines and fees.
“Anyone who falls behind faces imprisonment in unconscionable conditions without the opportunity to see a judge or explain the circumstances that prevent payment,” the original petition says.
West and Jones say that they face the threat of jail while Fuller states that he had already spent time in the Santa Fe Jail, which the suit labels a “modern-day debtors’ prison.”
Per the plaintiffs, Santa Fe Municipal Judge Carlton Getty and Santa Fe Chief of Police Jeffrey Powell agreed to raise the cost of traffic and other misdemeanor fines to boost revenue. The city then “uses multiple constitutional violations as leverage to extract payments from local residents, tacking on further fines and fees at every opportunity,” the suit says.
West and Jones further accuse the city of not providing them relief from their outstanding fines. Fuller complains that he was deprived of due process, his right to equal protection, his right to counsel, and his right against cruel and unusual punishment when the city jailed him.
Getty and Powell are co-defendants in the case.
A jury trial is requested.
Attorneys Trisha Trigilio and Rebecca Robertson of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas are representing the complainants.
Galveston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 3:16-CV-0309