A lawyer for the owners of Camp Mystic, the Texas camp hit by a flash flood that tragically led to the deaths of 27 people including 25 children, closed out a a long day of hearings by telling the lawyers for the family of a dead child whose body has never been recovered, “you’re gonna burn in hell.”
You know, “see you tomorrow,” works just fine.
On the third and final day of an evidentiary hearing in the lawsuit against Camp Mystic, Brad Beckworth, an attorney for the parents of one of the 8-year-old victims of the disaster, told the court that Camp Mystic lawyer Thomas Wright of Wright Close Barger & Guzman had informed him and co-counsel Christina Yarnell the previous evening that they were going to burn in hell.
And the KXAN local news has footage.
The exchange arose after a tense hearing. Beckworth told the court that he had approached another lawyer for the camp, Jeff Ray, to tell him, “You know maybe before you talk about the integrity of me and my team, maybe you just ought to ask us about the facts.” Harsh, but within the bounds of professional conversation. Another lawyer from the Camp Mystic team acknowledged that it was a good idea.
According to Beckworth, that’s when Wright entered the chat to say “You’re gonna burn in hell,” before telling Yarnell that she would also, in fact, be burning in hell.
Camp Mystic’s attorneys objected when Beckworth tried to raise this conversation in court. Not that it didn’t happen, but that it was relevant to the questioning of the current witness. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble was not amused. “Did this happen in my courtroom, or somewhere else?” she asked, with the plaintiff side of the table more or less nodding in unison. For his part, Beckworth said he wasn’t as much complaining about the remark, as citing this as indicative of Camp Mystic’s posture, which he argued has been resistant to the court’s authority.
“I believe in March, I explicitly told all the lawyers who were present that all the rules that apply when I’m in the courtroom, apply when I step out of the courtroom,” Gamble said. “I don’t know what happened… but any amount of that conversation that happened would be against the rules in this courtroom — whether I’m here or I’m not here.”
That’s the judicial equivalent of “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.”
Wright’s firm issued a statement saying it did not condone the remarks and that the firm had apologized to plaintiffs’ counsel before court began Wednesday. Wright himself provided a statement to KXAN:
After a long day in court, my emotions were running high, and I let them get the best of me. For that I sincerely apologize to both attorneys, to the court and to all involved. I do not wish to cause any distractions during this trial or any distress to the family of Cile Steward or any of the families of Camp Mystic.
Long days happen. Most attorneys manage not to tell the other side they’re going to burn in hell. Some things you can just keep to yourself.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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