{"id":3408,"date":"2025-10-14T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3408\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:06:08","slug":"no-jury-in-america-will-hold-camp-mystic-responsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3408\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No jury in America will hold Camp Mystic responsible\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Nationally prominent Texas plaintiff\u2019s trial lawyer Mikal Watts, who has successfully sued some of the biggest companies in the world for wrongful death and personal injuries, is taking on his first defense client: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/topic\/camp-mystic\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/topic\/camp-mystic\/\">Camp Mystic and its owners<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Watts said Monday that he is officially representing pro bono the Eastland family and the Christian girls summer camp that they have operated for decades in any potential litigation resulting from the July flooding tragedy that caused more than 115 deaths, including 27 children at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve spent three months conducting a thorough investigation, and I believe that facts matter,\u201d Watts told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:190 \/ 127\" class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-related-story-module__2UraD flex-none object-cover dmnc_images-modern-image-module__QFaG- max-w-full h-auto text-white dmnc_images-modern-image-module__9Zlll bg-gray-light object-contain dmnc_images-modern-image-module__P3kZ4 w-full\" width=\"190\" height=\"127\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RVJFYVJPFBDQVIYQL7CWGKYVJ4.jpg\" alt=\"Davin Hunt, father of 9-year-old Janie Hunt, who passed away at Camp Mystic flood, comforts...\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cThis was a flood of biblical proportions. This was preventable only one way \u2014 by deploying Texas tax money into modern river flood surge warning devices instead of the 70-year-old technology being used in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Business Briefing<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__3beff secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-20 text-center text-gray-dark\">Become a business insider with the latest news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__8MgJa flex flex-wrap text-gray-dark secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-10 text-center justify-center\">By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/terms-of-service\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cThe sirens never went off. The warnings never came,\u201d said Watts, who alsoowns property along the Guadalupe River about 12 miles from Camp Mystic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cWe, as a state, failed those families. Those girls never had a chance. There is no jury in America that will hold Camp Mystic responsible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Watts said that no lawsuits have been filed so far naming Camp Mystic or the Eastlands as defendants.A lawsuit has been filed by the family of Jayda Floyd against the HTR TX Hill Country, an RV and camping resort along the Guadalupe River. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Floyd was with her fianc\u00e9, Odessa Police Officer Bailey Martin, celebrating the Fourth of July in their RV. Both Floyd and Martin died in the flood that swept them away along with their RV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cI would be lying if I said that I did not see financial opportunity by possibly representing the victims\u2019 families in this tragedy,\u201d Watts told The Lawbook. \u201cBut all the finger pointing in the world is never going to change what happened or who is responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Watts, a prominent donor to Democratic candidates and causes, praised the Republican-led Texas legislature for the passage of multiple laws that he agrees were first steps in requiring improved warning systems in flood-prone areas.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">The families have a right to demand to know what happened,\u201d Watts said. \u201cSo we are inviting any families to tour the grounds at Camp Mystic, and wewill show them the evidence, show them the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">The Texas Lawbook is an online newspaper that focuses on business law and business lawyers in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nationally prominent Texas plaintiff\u2019s trial lawyer Mikal Watts, who has successfully sued some of the biggest companies in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[910,2330,27,29,28,3843],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-business","tag-camp-mystic","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-the-texas-lawbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408","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=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}