Prosecutor out at Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office after DWI arrest
The chief prosecutor in one of the 11 state district courts in Tarrant County was arrested late Tuesday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after he was involved in a minor car accident three blocks from his Fort Worth home, according to a police record.
After his arrest, Assistant District Attorney Matt Rivers is no longer employed by the Tarrant County DA’s office, according to its spokesperson.
A Fort Worth police officer arrested Rivers, 38, about 10:30 p.m. after responding to an accident in the 1700 block of Bluebonnet Drive.
Rivers, who was released on a $500 personal bond, appears to wear a soccer jersey in his mug shot.
A special prosecutor will handle the DWI case.
Rivers, who at the time of his arrest was chief prosecutor in the 396th District Court, did not immediately respond to questions in a reporter’s email.
Rivers has in recent years mostly prosecuted homicide cases.
Rivers achieved a capital murder conviction for Reid Rothenberg in the double homicide of an 84-year-old man lying on a couch and another man in the yard of a house in Arlington, and a murder conviction for Dorian Woodard in the killing of a clerk at an Arlington E-Z Mart.
In a loss for Rivers, a jury in 2024 acquitted on self-defense grounds Christopher Avington, who was indicted on capital murder in connection with a double homicide in White Settlement.
Rivers successfully prosecuted the murder indictment of Braylin Brown, a notorious Crips street gang member who orchestrated the killing of Brown’s father in Fort Worth. Braylin Brown was motivated in part by disgust with a multigenerational intrafamily sexual relationship in which his father was involved, a detective testified.
Rivers handled the retrial and manslaughter conviction of Marvin Rodriguez, who was indicted on murder in a killing in the AT&T Stadium parking lot in Arlington at a Dallas Cowboys game tailgate.
This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 1:41 PM.
