{"id":303876,"date":"2026-05-22T02:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/303876\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T02:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:36:10","slug":"charges-dismissed-against-trinidad-texas-water-protestors-as-city-hall-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/303876\/","title":{"rendered":"Charges dismissed against Trinidad, Texas Water Protestors as city hall closes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Charges Charges dismissed against Trinidad water protestors<\/a> <\/p>\n

A Henderson County grand jury and a municipal judge have dismissed all charges against two citizen journalists arrested in Trinidad, Texas, following public outcry over the city’s ongoing water issues and First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

TRINIDAD, Texas – A grand jury has now declined to indict a woman arrested over a Facebook post about water concerns in the City of Trinidad.<\/p>\n

This was a quick decision by a grand jury, as the woman is one of two arrests related to the water controversy that will not be moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charges dropped against local water protesters \"\" <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Citizen journalist Winston Noles goes by the name Otto the Watchdog.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Last week, Noles’ 80,000 YouTube subscribers had live access of his arrest for holding up a sign outside the Trinidad Police Department.<\/p>\n

Facebook post sparks public health debate \"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, FOX 4 shared an exclusive interview with Jennifer Combs, a citizen journalist arrested for a Facebook post, reading, “We have received reports that some citizens have been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. This is a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention.”<\/p>\n

FOX 4 has received images from residents of deeply discolored water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City leaders admit there\u2019s a water issue that\u2019s been going on for years, but Chief of Police Charles Gregory says no one has been hospitalized and in a social media post of his own said Combs\u2019 post “creates fear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The police department charged her with felony false alarm or report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Combs, who says she was simply trying to investigate, maintains people have reported hospitalization, and the mayor says he\u2019s at least seen social media posts claiming the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First Amendment protest in Trinidad <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“So I came out to Trinidad because I found out that the Chief of Police had arrested a lady for making a Facebook post,” said Noles.<\/p>\n

He protested Combs\u2019 arrest with a sign we cannot show on television, reading, “*expletive* bad cops.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“We are in a crisis with the First Amendment right now,” said Noles. “I don\u2019t like the bad part of law enforcement. I like good cops.”<\/p>\n

18-minutes into Noles\u2019 livestream, he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for the sign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What they did to me was so clearly unconstitutional that any reasonable officer should\u2019ve known better,” said Noles.<\/p>\n

Trinidad City Hall abruptly closes \"\" <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

On Thursday, however, Trinidad\u2019s municipal judge said Noles\u2019 case is being dismissed, and a Henderson County Grand Jury no-billed Combs\u2019 case, meaning it\u2019s dismissed due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

Now, for unknown reasons, Trinidad\u2019s City Hall is now closed until next Tuesday, while many continue to ask what exactly is going on with the water?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality confirms to FOX 4 that an investigation into the city\u2019s water is ongoing.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this article was provided by FOX 4’s David Sentendrey.<\/p>\n

Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Environment<\/a>Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charges dismissed against Trinidad water protestors A Henderson County grand jury and a municipal judge have dismissed all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1046,2327,223,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":["post-303876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}