Hays County district clerk found incompetent, judge says

Hays County district clerk incompetent: judge

A Hays County district judge has found the county's district clerk incompetent, this as a petition has already been filed to remove the 20-year-old from office.

HAYS COUNTY, Texas - A Hays County District Judge has found the County’s District Clerk incompetent. This comes as a petition has already been filed to remove the 20-year-old from office.

"Mr. Anderson has on multiple occasions failed to fulfill his duties as district clerk," Attorney Thomas Just said.

A petition was filed in September 2023 to remove 20-year-old Hays County District Clerk Avrey Anderson from office, according to Hays County Attorney Chloe Love.

"Both of us were increasingly concerned about the dysfunction of the Hays County District Clerk's Office," Just said.

About four months after Anderson was served, at least 6,000 jury summons weren’t sent out in the county. Jurors didn’t show up and two defendants didn’t have their day in court because of the mistake.

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Hays County constables will need to hand-deliver thousands of jury summons. The county clerk says this is due to an error by a vendor.

Last month, FOX 7 spoke to Anderson, who blamed the technology company for the issue.

"Would there have been any way to have known that they weren't going out before they just didn't show up?" FOX 7 reporter Meredith Aldis asked.

"Not from me, not from me at all. There wouldn't have been a way because it's the back-end part of the programming that does the summoning," Anderson said.

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It was revealed in a show cause hearing that Anderson did have the ability to verify whether the jury summons had gone out.

"The software provides a very easy way to check within 48 to 72 hours whether those jury summons had gone out. The problem was that Mr. Anderson, it was revealed during the course of the hearing, had slept through the training on how to do that," Just said.

The judge said Anderson is incompetent.

Lawsuit to remove Hays Co. District Clerk

A new lawsuit seeks to remove the Hays County District Clerk by reason of "incompetency."

"That finding is the exact legal finding needed for the removal suit," Just said.

Just is fighting for Anderson’s removal as he said he doesn’t think Anderson is taking the job seriously.

"I know for the first few months after he took office he was coming to work in his pajamas," Just said.

Anderson declined to comment on the record Wednesday as the investigation continues.

Just said the Guadalupe County Attorney has been selected as the special prosecutor in the case, and it’s now up to his office to seek removal of Anderson from office.