Renter says Castle Hills police shredded his rights in zeal to evict squatters

Michael Wayne Dixon was sleeping at his Castle Hills rental home one morning when he awoke abruptly. Two police officers were standing in his bedroom with weapons drawn.

"You're not supposed to be here," one of them said.

Officers claimed Dixon, then 23, was a squatter. He had been renting the house on Honeysuckle Lane for years, according to a lawsuit his attorney, Derick J. Rodgers, filed recently in Bexar County's 150th District Court.

The officers found Dixon's truck in the driveway and mail addressed to him, but they went on to search the house and arrest him on drug charges. Prosecutors dropped the charges six months later, citing a lack of probable cause to believe a crime was committed, court records show.

The arrest is now the focus of a civil rights lawsuit by Dixon against the city of Castle Hills, the Castle Hills Police Department, Interim Police Chief Jose Davila and officers Abel Cervantes and Gary Tomblin.

The suit, filed June 24, seeks unspecified damages for alleged violations of Dixon's Fourth Amendment rights and infliction of intentional emotional distress. It claims the officers entered and searched the home without a warrant. The complaint attributed his arrest to local and statewide attempts to crack down on squatters, including recent Castle Hills ordinances targeting so-called "nuisance" properties.

Asked for comment on the allegations, the police department referred the San Antonio Express-News to City Manager Christopher Duque. He said the city does not comment on pending litigation.

'Still being lived in'

A neighbor called police around 7:15 a.m. on June 25, 2024, to report a possible squatter at 301 Honeysuckle Lane, in a leafy neighborhood of single-family homes. A "for sale" sign she previously saw in the yard was no longer there, and a shopping cart was sitting near the house.

Dixon and his roommates were still living in the home, according to the lawsuit. They were packing and preparing to move out before their lease ended on July 1, 2024.

When Cervantes and Tomblin arrived, they saw a Ford F-150 parked in the driveway with a U-Haul trailer attached. Police dispatch confirmed to the officers that the truck was registered to Dixon.

The officers peered through the windows. Tomblin wrote in a report that "it was obvious the house was still being lived in," according to the lawsuit.

The officers did not knock on the front door or obtain a warrant to go inside, the lawsuit says. Instead, Tomblin went in through the back door. The lawsuit alleges he knew to use the rear entrance because he had been to the home several times before in response to noise complaints.

That's when the officers confronted Dixon in his bedroom. Dixon told them he had an active lease, which the property manager confirmed by phone, the lawsuit says.

Officers placed Dixon in handcuffs and "persisted with their investigation."

The officers arrested Dixon on three felony charges of possession of a controlled substance, meaning a potentially addictive drug regulated by the federal government. The lawsuit does not specify what drug or drugs the officers allegedly found.

Dixon was released from the Bexar County jail two days later after, posting a $20,000 bond.

The charges were dismissed on Dec. 11, 2024.

'Extreme and outrageous'

There was no urgent circumstance, such as an injured person inside the house, which would have justified the officers in entering without a warrant, the lawsuit says.

In seizing alleged contraband and arresting Dixon, the officers went "far outside the scope of the original investigation into potential squatters being at the home," the lawsuit says, adding that their actions caused Dixon "loss of reputation, emotional and mental distress, degradation, embarrassment, and humiliation."

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The suit asserts that officers were emboldened by a series of ordinances passed by Castle Hills leaders since 2018 targeting "nuisance generating properties." The measures were part of a statewide push to make it easier for property owners to remove squatters, who were said to have become bolder about taking possession of vacant homes and refusing to leave.

Under the ordinances, properties are declared "nuisance generating" if they are the scene of trespassing, drug activity, vandalism or other offenses twice within 60 days or four times in the course of a year. Once a property is designated "nuisance generating," the owner must register with the city and pay a bond in order to lease it.

"As a result of the Castle Hills policies that encourage removal of squatters and beautification of the city, the CHPD officers ignored fundamental protections of the Fourth Amendment to blindly advance the initiatives of Castle Hills by unlawfully entering the home," the lawsuit says.

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