Camp Mystic attorneys pull midnight maneuver, avoid arbitration ruling as lead counsel skips hearing

A Travis County judge expressed open frustration Wednesday after attorneys for Camp Mystic filed amended arbitration motions at midnight — hours before a scheduled hearing — effectively sidestepping a ruling she had been prepared to deliver while lead defense attorney Mikal Watts was absent from the courtroom.

The hearing before Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in the 459th District Court lasted roughly an hour and resolved nothing on the central question families of flood victims had gathered to hear decided: whether their wrongful death lawsuits would be compelled into private arbitration or remain in public court.

Instead, the judge received what she called “last second notice” that the defense had withdrawn its original motions to compel arbitration and refiled nearly identical amended versions — a procedural move that reset the clock and gave the defense an opening to argue the hearing no longer applied to the new filings.

Mikal Watts, who represents Natural Fountain Properties and several Eastland family entities, was not present. The judge made clear his absence had not gone unnoticed.

“I especially don’t like it when I think I know what’s going on,” Guerra Gamble said from the bench, “because I’m getting emails talking about Spurs games and weddings in Italy.”

Plaintiffs’ attorneys were blunt in their reaction. Brad Beckworth, who represents several victim families, called the midnight filing “a gotcha game and bait and switch” that was “beyond the pale.”

Attorney Kyle Findley argued the defense had forfeited its right to seek arbitration altogether by withdrawing the original motions. Finley said he had told defense counsel he would not agree to a withdrawal “unless you withdraw with prejudice to refile,” and argued the defense had accepted that condition by proceeding anyway.

“It’s no different than settling a case,” Findley said.

Defense attorney Joshua Fiveson rejected that framing. “Simply declaring on one side, ‘if you do this, the consequence will be that’ — that doesn’t make it an agreement,” he said.

Findley also called out a contradiction in the defense’s public posture. Watts, he noted, had spent months in media appearances declaring that “no jury in America would ever hold them accountable” — then filed to move the case out of reach of any jury.

“Now here they are doing the complete opposite,” Findley said, “saying we don’t want a jury to hear it anymore.”

The judge declined to rule on the amended arbitration motions and scheduled the next hearing for June 10, when a wave of anticipated motions — including plaintiffs’ expected filings for sanctions and cost reimbursement — will be addressed.

Guerra Gamble warned the defense that filing at midnight and failing to have lead counsel present could itself be grounds for sanctions, and issued a blanket order going forward: every party must have an attorney in the courtroom at every future hearing.

“I want a lawyer who represents every party present in the courtroom every time we gather for a hearing or a meeting,” she said.

The hearing did produce one substantive outcome: an agreed scheduling framework for discovery, including a protocol reserving the first week of each month for depositions and limiting questioning of surviving minor campers to one designated attorney per side.