Patton Village warrant warning mailed out to hundreds, some for tickets paid years ago

PATTON VILLAGE, Texas (KTRK) -- Hundreds of people in the town of Patton Village are receiving threats of arrest in the mail if they don't pay dues.

ONLY ABC13 spoke to families about the city trying to charge them for traffic citations they paid off years ago, some going back to 2016.

On Friday afternoon, the Mayor of Patton Village, Scott Anderson, told ABC13 they would not arrest anyone who received the neon warrant warnings this week as they work through issues with their new court system.

Yaniel Lopez Cruz was parked outside of Patton Village City Hall on Friday morning with a look of concern and a neon card with the words, "Warrant Round Up Warning." Lopez Cruz told ABC13 he has a looming out-of-state trip this weekend and was concerned he would be wrongly arrested at the airport for an accused warrant for a ticket from two years ago he had already paid.

On Friday, Lopez Cruz took the day off from work and drove from Katy to Patton Village to talk to city representatives about the warrant round-up mail he received on Thursday. But when he showed up, he realized their offices were closed. He and others showed up throughout the day, hoping to get answers from the city and clear their names.

"I made a mistake two years ago. That's why they gave me a ticket, and I paid for it already. Who's going to pay for this mistake?" Lopez Cruz asked.

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He says it's worrisome to find this in the mail, but after speaking to ABC13, he realized he's not the only one.

"You're not alone. Some people are having the same trouble as you," Lopez Cruz said on Friday morning to people at home who may be experiencing the same thing.

Through city leaders, ABC13 learned hundreds of people across Patton Village and beyond had received threats of arrest for not paying ticket fines.

"Yeah, sounds pretty scary. Sounds like your whole life can be destroyed in one single swoop either over a misunderstanding or information not being properly handled," David Dishman, one of several people who received notice from a third-party collector about the fines claiming he owed money, said.

Many tell ABC13 they're already on payment plans with the city or have paid their debt altogether years ago.

Viewers told ABC13 that they're being asked for proof of receipt by the city to clear their names.

ABC13 asked one of the people impacted, Antonio Hernandez Gomez, if he had kept his receipt for his paid traffic ticket from a decade ago,

"No! How am I going to have the receipt from a long time ago?" Hernandez said.

On Friday afternoon, he expressed his discontent with being unable to reach city officials on a Friday before violation enforcement was reportedly set to start and a day after receiving notice in the mail.

Mayor Anderson told Eyewitness News the city switched to a new court system in January with new court staffing. Anderson confirmed the warrants are on pause as the city works through issues after they found a lot of cases appearing in the new system as unpaid. The mayor said at this point, they have discovered clerical issues and are working to fix the problem.

Some of the people impacted told ABC13 they want an investigation done on the situation.

The mayor said they have paper trails in one of their building, and there are thousands of ticket packets they must go through to verify everyone's cases.

If you received the warrant notice from Patton Village, you're being asked to send your information via email to their offices at courts@pattonvillage.us.

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