{"id":767532,"date":"2026-07-17T03:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T03:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767532\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T03:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T03:33:08","slug":"lavaca-county-justice-of-the-peace-died-by-suicide-during-arrest-sheriffs-office-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767532\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavaca County justice of the peace died by suicide during arrest, sheriff\u2019s office says"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAVACA COUNTY, Texas \u2013 A judge died by suicide days after he was arrested on three felony charges related to sex crimes, according to the Lavaca County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Travis Hill, who also worked as a criminal defense attorney, faced three charges:<\/p>\n

Compelling prostitution, a first-degree felony<\/p>\n

Sexual assault, a second-degree felony<\/p>\n

Solicitation of prostitution, a state jail felony<\/p>\n

United States Marshals and local law enforcement were dispatched to a remote location in Gonzales County to arrest Hill. The news release stated both agencies made an \u201cencounter\u201d with him.<\/p>\n

Hill died by suicide during his interaction with law enforcement, according to the Lavaca County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hill was arrested for the felony charges on July 11. It\u2019s unclear why authorities were dispatched to arrest him again.<\/p>\n

KSAT has reached out to the county for clarification. The investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

The Lavaca County Sheriff\u2019s Office said it became aware of misconduct allegations involving Hill approximately six weeks ago, prompting a request for the Texas Department of Public Safety Texas Rangers to conduct a special investigation.<\/p>\n

Because Hill serves as both an elected official and a practicing criminal defense attorney \u2014 including as a public defender \u2014 the Lavaca County Attorney\u2019s Office formally recused itself from the case. The Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office was asked to take over prosecution.<\/p>\n

The investigation remains active, according to the sheriff\u2019s office, and authorities said additional charges may be filed.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Steven E. Greenwell said in a statement that the investigation was conducted \u201cwith the highest level of professionalism in partnership with the Texas Rangers to ensure independence, objectivity, and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is above the law, and no one is beneath its protection,\u201d Greenwell said.<\/p>\n

Authorities are asking anyone with information relevant to the investigation to contact the DPS Texas Rangers or the Lavaca County Crime Stoppers website or Facebook page. The LCSO Criminal Investigation Division can also be reached at 361-217-6753. Callers may remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAVACA COUNTY, Texas \u2013 A judge died by suicide days after he was arrested on three felony charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11551,4,450,3071,451,327855,327854,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-767532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-arrest","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-lavaca-county","tag-lavaca-county-sheriffs-office","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}