Wednesday’s hearing was supposed to resolve whether the lawsuits would be moved to private arbitration rather than stay in public courtrooms, but it didn’t.
AUSTIN, Texas — A Travis County judge expressed frustration on Wednesday with lawyers representing Camp Mystic after they pulled a midnight maneuver, filing amended motions just hours before a scheduled hearing was set to begin.
It was supposed to be an arbitration hearing and a chance to review evidence and testimony in the wrongful death lawsuits against the camp.
The parents of several campers have filed wrongful death lawsuits, accusing Camp Mystic of failing to protect their daughters.
Twenty-five campers, two counselors and the camp director lost their lives in the catastrophic flash floods at the Kerr County camp in the early morning hours of July 4, 2025.
Wednesday was supposed to be Camp Mystic’s time to make its case for its motion to compel arbitration, which would take the proceedings behind closed doors and out of the public eye into private arbitration or back into public court.
But at midnight, Camp Mystic’s attorneys withdrew their motions and instead filed amended motions, which the judge said, “are nearly identical in substance.”
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble expressed clear frustration with Camp Mystic’s lawyers on Wednesday. In addition to withdrawing their motions to compel arbitration and filing a new one just hours before the scheduled hearing, some camp leaders and defendants didn’t have a lawyer in the courtroom representing them. However, Camp Mystic attorneys said they were handling it as a team job.
Camp Mystic’s lead attorney Mikal Watts was not present, and his absence did not go unnoticed.
“What I don’t like is the last-second notice,” Guerra Gamble said. “I especially don’t like it when I think I know what’s going on because I’m getting emails talking about Spurs games and weddings in Italy, so I don’t love that.”
The hearing before Judge Guerra Gamble in the 459th District Court lasted roughly an hour. This procedural move left little to discuss on Wednesday on the arbitration front in light of the new filings.
Instead of arbitration, much of the hearing focused on discovery, hashing out the details on how to handle evidence collection and depositions. Even though there are five cases with separate legal teams, Guerra Gamble made clear that she did not want to see young campers and counselors who need to be deposed get deposed more than once.
Lawyers for the families called the midnight maneuver by Camp Mystic lawyers “a gotcha game and bait and switch” that they said was “beyond the pale.”
Lawyers for the families argued that Camp Mystic’s attorneys waived their right to compel arbitration because the judge said they could withdraw their motion only if both parties agreed. Lawyers for the families said they would only agree to allow Camp Mystic’s lawyers to withdraw their motion if they did so “with prejudice”, which means they can’t file the same motion again.
And by withdrawing the motion at 11:59 p.m., they argued they implicitly agreed to their demands not to file again.
“It’s no different than settling a case. It’s no different from resolving any dispute when someone meets the required conditions. It is an acceptance,” Kyle Findley, an attorney who represents some of the families, said. “They can call it what they want to call it, but for them to say we don’t accept the lawyer’s terms, these were the court’s terms. The court set the parameters.”
Joshua Fiveson, an attorney representing Camp Mystic, pushed back in court, saying there was nothing wrong with their filing an amended motion for arbitration and that they had no written agreement.
“We have not accepted their proposal via email. There’s no email agreement, there’s no signed agreement, no Rule 11 agreement,” Fiveson said. “There’s nothing here that suggests there is any agreement, and simply declaring on one side, if you do this, the consequence will be that. It doesn’t make it an agreement, so with respect, we reject that.”
Attorney Brad Beckworth, who represents the family of Cile Steward, an eight-year-old from Austin who was swept away at Camp Mystic, and whose body has never been found, brought up the idea of sanctioning Watts. Beckworth said Watts signed the motion to withdraw it while on vacation outside the country. Guerra Gamble said the midnight maneuver and Watts’ failure to show up could be grounds for sanctions.
“Filing a pleading at midnight and not showing up might be grounds for a different kind of action, but that’s the kind of action I need to have a motion on,” Guerra Gamble said. “I’m not going to take that on my own.”
Guerra Gamble made clear that, moving forward, she expects that every party representing someone in these five cases will have an attorney present in the courtroom for every future hearing.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if Mr. Watts clients don’t believe they need to be represented,” Guerra Gamble said. “They’ve received proper notice, then due process and all the constitutional protections allow me to proceed, which I will be doing whenever it’s appropriate.”
Beckworth said lawyers for the families anticipate filing a handful of motions in the coming days, including motions for reimbursement for having to appear on Wednesday and, potentially, for sanctions.
“This has been a long, protracted effort by the Eastlands and Camp mystic to try to keep beating our parents into submission with bad tactics and trial by ambush and trial by combat,” Beckworth said. “We’re going to raise some issues with the court around that.”
Beckworth said the last-minute trickery to delay this whole process was not fair to the many family members who made the trip to Austin for these proceedings.
“They’re struggling to keep their lives together and hold their families together, and every time we have to bring them here to one of these proceedings, it is reliving heartbreak over and over and over again,” Beckworth said. “These parents will never enjoy a basketball game again. They will never enjoy a trip with their families again, not the same as they have, I know, because they’ve been on him to try. Think about what Mother’s Day was like for every one of these moms.”
Findley pointed out that over the last several months, lawyers for Camp Mystic have said multiple times that “no jury in America would ever hold them accountable,” which contradicts this effort to move the case to arbitration.
“They are doing everything they can actually to keep it from a jury, and that’s what we’re here about today, is to make sure a jury gets to hear this evidence,” Findley said.
The families say they believe these cases have no place in arbitration and that this is not what arbitration is intended to do, because it is a matter of great public interest involving the protection of children.
“This kind of thing needs to be brought out in public. So we’re going to show that to Judge Gamble. We’re confident she’ll make a well-reasoned decision under the law,” Beckworth said. “It’s very important that everybody knows that this has got to be brought out in public. Otherwise, we don’t learn from our mistakes, and history will repeat itself like it’s done at Camp Mystic over and over.”
Findley said they believe the Texas Arbitration Act applies to this situation because it involves a Texas camp, Texas campers, and Texas counselors.
“All of a sudden they’re trying to say it should fall under the federal act even though everything we know about Mystic and everything they tout and advertise on behalf of Mystic, that is Texas counselors, Texas camp, Texas people, Texas river,” Findley said. “The fight will continue. But certainly this is a matter that should go before a jury and should be open to the public to see.”
Camp Mystic will not open up this summer, reversing plans as families grieve and investigations into last year’s tragedy continue. The withdrawal of Camp Mystic’s application doesn’t impact the ongoing legal efforts.
Camp Mystic is facing five lawsuits tied to the deadly flooding from families who lost loved ones.
The state health department will continue to work with the Texas Rangers to investigate complaints about child neglect at Camp Mystic last summer.
Beckworth said from the perspective of the families who lost loved ones, that is just phase one. Many families have been vocal in their belief that the Eastland family should not be entrusted with operating a camp for children again.
“We’re going to bring this case to the light of day. We’re going to let juries decide the outcome. There’s a lot more work to do. We’re going to keep doing that work,” Beckworth said. “I think everybody needs to know we are just getting started. We are far from done.”
Attorneys for both families and Camp Mystic said they were happy to discuss the amended arbitration motion on Wednesday, but Judge Guerra Gamble decided against it. The next hearing is set for June 10. Lawyers for Camp Mystic want the court to take up their new arbitration motion then. Judge Guerra Gamble said she’ll decide which motions she’ll hear at a later date.