PRESIDIO COUNTY — Last Wednesday, a district judge ruled in the county’s favor in a lawsuit over whether Naegele Springs Road –– a very remote dirt road near Ruidosa –– is a public, county road, or whether it could be gated by a landowner.
Judge Genie Wright also granted $30,157 to the county for attorney fees as well as an additional $25,000 should the county prevail in an appeal. The ruling also reinforced a previous judgment that Mary Baxter and Neil Chavigny — the defendants in the case –– must take down their gate or be in contempt of court.
Presidio County was roped into the case in March 2023 as a lawsuit between several landowners near Pinto Canyon. Maria Maurial, a land speculator and investor, bought land down the road from Marfa residents Mary Baxter and Neil Chavigny.
Historically, the gate just before Baxter and Chavigny’s property was kept open or locked by a combination that other landowners –– including neighboring Jeff Fort of the Pinto Canyon Ranch and the Judd Ranch, LLC –– had access to. But after learning that Maurial had gone through the gate without their permission, Baxter and Chavigny decided not to continue the practice of giving neighbors the code.
Beyond defending their right to close off their own property, the Baxter-Chavigny team repeatedly questioned why the cash-strapped county would volunteer to take care of an extra nine miles of road.
Fort and Judd Ranch –– a company also owned by Fort that looks after land that once belonged to the estate of Donald Judd –– joined the suit shortly after.
The plaintiffs argued that Naegele Springs Road was a county road and that it was illegal to close it off from the public with a gate. Baxter and Chavigny added Presidio County as a co-defendant to put the burden on the local government to prove whether or not the road was open to all.
Judge Wright eventually agreed with the plaintiffs that a 1975 Commissioners Court resolution made the road public, despite a series of state laws encouraging counties to shed neglected roads from their care that Naegele Springs was excluded from.
In January, the Big Bend Sentinel scoured through the old Presidio County Jail and discovered several thick folders of paperwork from the early 2000s through 2008. The files seemed to be addressing a process of determining which roads are public and which are private, prompted by HB 1117, an act of the state legislature that required counties to map and inventory roads they were responsible for maintaining.
Those files may have included a 2008 county road map that has, according to county officials, never been found. County Judge Joe Portillo did not let The Sentinel review the documents and instead consulted with outside attorney, Jim Allison, who refused to release them. Allison then requested an attorney general opinion after The Sentinel sent an official records request.
The attorney general’s office decision stated that some of the records could be withheld because they pertained to pending litigation. Before that decision, Allison did eventually release dozens of originally withheld pages to The Sentinel –– most dealt with roads near Casa Piedra and access to Big Bend Ranch State Park, with no mention of Naegele Springs Road.
Baxter and Chavigny were considering an appeal, but it is uncertain now whether they will continue with the case. Their attorney declined to comment because a gag order issued by the judge is still in effect.
A separate hearing will be scheduled to consider awarding attorney fees to plaintiffs Maria Maurial and Jeff Fort.