Brittany Trevino Lawsuit: Officer Fired, Then Reinstated by Arbitrator

No civil lawsuit filed by Brittany Trevino against the City of New Braunfels or Officer Patrick Akers has been identified in available reporting on the Brittany Trevino lawsuit question. What did happen is a disciplinary case: Akers was fired in January 2024 over a September 2023 traffic stop in which he handcuffed Trevino after she made a middle-finger gesture at him, and a Texas civil service hearing examiner reinstated him in November 2024 with roughly $80,000 in back pay and credits, finding the firing too severe even though the detention was improper.¹

What Happened at the September 2023 Stop

On September 6, 2023, Akers was working as a cover officer at another traffic stop in New Braunfels when Trevino drove past and raised her middle finger at him. He left the stop he was assisting, got in his patrol car, and went after her.

Department records show he reached 68 mph in a 35-mph zone during the pursuit, crossed a double yellow line, drove through a crosswalk, and cut off another vehicle. When he pulled Trevino over, he did not ask for her license or insurance. Body camera audio captured him telling her she was stopped because she “failed to signal a lane change when you flipped me off.” Trevino answered, “I know who you are,” and told another officer at the scene, “He’s hurt me before.”²

Akers directed Officer Daniel Henderson to handcuff Trevino, and she stayed in cuffs for about seven minutes. Sergeant Chris Scott arrived, questioned why anyone was being arrested over a signal violation, and ordered her released with a citation for failure to signal. Asked whether he would normally just write a ticket for that kind of violation, Akers acknowledged that he would.³

The History Between Trevino and Akers

The two had a prior encounter in 2021, when Akers detained Trevino at a family self-storage facility in New Braunfels while responding to a possible burglary call. He alleged she resisted, and he handcuffed her. She was charged with drug paraphernalia possession over a pipe found in her car — which she said she used for legal CBD hemp — and was convicted of that charge.³

Trevino filed a misconduct complaint against Akers after that arrest.⁴ Akers later claimed she spent the next two years harassing and stalking him online and by placing stickers with his photograph around town. He did not file a formal criminal complaint about that alleged harassment until after the department began investigating his conduct in the 2023 stop.²

Why Akers Was Fired

On January 24, 2024, then-Chief Keith Lane fired Akers. In the termination letter, Lane wrote that Akers had used his authority to settle a “personal grudge” and added, “This is everything that we’re not about. We don’t use our authority to take out personal grudges.”¹

Lane also pointed to Akers’s broader record. Since February 2021, 13 complaints had been filed against him, and eight had resulted in discipline. Lane called it a “complete failure to respond to the progressive disciplinary principles.” The internal affairs investigator concluded Akers had failed to “differentiate between his legal authority and his personal connection to the situation.”²

Why the Arbitrator Reinstated Him

Akers appealed under Texas’s civil service system. On November 6, 2024, hearing examiner Ruben Armendariz issued a ruling that agreed with the department on the facts but not on the penalty.

Armendariz found that Akers “used his position as a peace officer for a personal grievance because Trevino had been harassing him in the social media” and that the stop carried “an appearance of retaliation” to any reasonable observer. Handcuffing Trevino over a signal violation, he wrote, was “not appropriate under any given circumstances.” Even so, he concluded the conduct did not amount to “actionable serious misconduct” and called termination “too harsh or severe.” The appropriate discipline, he ruled, was a written warning for “improper detention of Trevino.”¹

A procedural point drove much of the outcome. Texas Local Government Code Section 143.117 bars a department head from suspending an officer for conduct discovered more than 180 days before the disciplinary action.⁵ Armendariz found that the city’s reliance on older complaints to justify firing Akers ran into that limit and was “a violation of the Civil Service Act.”¹

He ordered immediate reinstatement with full back pay minus interim earnings, about $71,000 in lost salary plus vacation and sick time credits, roughly $80,000 in total.

Where the Case Stands Now

The City of New Braunfels did not publicly challenge the ruling. A spokeswoman said officials were “working through the process for reinstatement and backpay.” Akers returned to duty with the New Braunfels Police Department on December 2, 2024.⁴

Chief Lane, who signed the firing, was no longer with the department by then. He announced his resignation effective October 31, 2024, before the arbitration ruling came down, and Assistant Chief David Blevins was named interim chief.⁶

On Trevino’s side, Akers’s attorney, Steve Dunbar, said a criminal complaint against her for alleged trespassing and other conduct was pending at the Comal County District Attorney’s office, but as of November 2024, county court records showed no charges had been filed against her. And again on the civil side, no lawsuit by Trevino against Akers or the city has surfaced in available reporting.¹

1
San Antonio Express-News. New Braunfels Police Officer Reinstated
2
San Antonio Express-News. New Braunfels Police Firing Akers
3
The Real News. Cops Cuffed Her for Failing to Signal but a Camera Turned Their Plan Upside Down
4
Herald-Zeitung. New Braunfels PD Officer Reinstated After He Was Fired for Detaining Woman
5
FindLaw. Texas Local Government Code Section 143.117
6
City of New Braunfels. New Braunfels Police Chief Announcement