SAN MARCOS, Texas — Hays County District Clerk Avrey Anderson will find out if he has a job in a couple of weeks.
The 20-year-old is accused of incompetence and official misconduct.
On Tuesday afternoon, visiting Judge Amy Meachum heard arguments tied to a lawsuit that seeks to remove Anderson from office.
During the hearing, Assistant Hays County District Clerk Max Hernandez said Anderson failed to send out jury summons and didn't process protective orders, indictments and mental health commitments. As a result, several trials were delayed and defendants sat in jail for months.
Hernandez also described times when Anderson brought his wife to work every day for several weeks. He also said Anderson brought and left his child in a car seat with a feeding tube alone in his office for 20 to 30 minutes.
Hernandez also told the judge that his boss is unstable and erratic, calling Anderson a "psychopath" for threatening another elected official, something Anderson apologized for during his testimony.
"I was never threatening to harm people. I may have said that I wanted to or something, but it was an extreme frustration," Anderson said.
Anderson also told the judge he ran for office so he could change some of the antiquated processes in the clerk’s office. The 20-year-old said he had no experience and asked for help from the previous district clerk and was refused.
"There was none of that. We had to figure out a lot of things on our own, such as juries. A lot of my first few months in office was figuring things out," Anderson said.
In two weeks, Judge Meachum is expected to decide whether to temporarily suspend Anderson and whether he'll be paid during that time.
A trial that seeks to permanently remove Anderson from office is set for Oct. 28. That stems from a lawsuit filed by two attorneys last year after Anderson filed a petition to remove Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins from office. The petition accused Higgins of implementing and executing policies refusing to prosecute certain offenses, like simple marijuana possession.
Thomas Just, one of the attorneys suing to remove Anderson from office, said that was the last straw.
"He [Anderson] did so on the basis that the district attorney wasn't going after trans kids and not enforcing abortion bans – and this is coming from a Democrat … This office doesn't work under him," Just said. "This is a completely dysfunctional and broken office. Things are not being processed correctly, inmates are being left in jail far longer than what they are supposed to be. People are not receiving mental health."