Basically, an order to preserve evidence while litigation proceeds.
Camp Mystic cannot alter its property by the Guadalupe River where 27 girls and the camp’s executive director died last summer, so that evidence can be preserved while a lawsuit proceeds, a judge in Austin ruled Wednesday.
The camp cannot demolish, repair or reconstruct a number of cabins where campers slept when a massive flood struck on July 4, Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said.
The camp also cannot modify its grounds or its office building, recreation hall or commissary — all points of interest in the wrongful death case filed by the parents of camper Cile Steward, whose body still has not been found.
But the court order, which will be finalized in the coming days, doesn’t block Camp Mystic from reopening its neighboring Cypress Lake camp site, where cabins didn’t flood, this summer. The judge asked attorneys to bring back a map showing a clear line drawn between the Guadalupe portion where children died and the Cypress Lake portion, which the camp is seeking to reopen.
“For us, it’s incredibly vindicating to have this order ruled in our favor as it relates to maintaining the evidence and trying to really get down to the bottom of what happened to our children,” said CiCi Steward, Cile’s mother.
Mikal Watts, the lawyer representing Camp Mystic and its owners and directors, the Eastland family, also praised the judge’s decision.
“She did the right thing: She agreed that the evidence at the Guadalupe River should be preserved,” he said.
See here for some background. This was the first hearing in any of the lawsuits against Camp Mystic, and that was one reason why I wanted to note this. Seems like this particular motion was not really contested, but as these plaintiffs want to shut the camp down until the litigation is resolved, I don’t imagine it will continue like that.