AUSTIN — Travis County Judge Maya Guerra Gamble presided over a hearing Wednesday in Austin concerning Camp Mystic's withdrawal and refiling of motions to compel arbitration in five wrongful-death lawsuits stemming from a July 4, 2025, flood at its Kerr County camp. The hearing had been scheduled to resolve whether the lawsuits would be moved to private arbitration.

At midnight, Camp Mystic's attorneys withdrew their motions to compel arbitration and filed amended motions that were nearly identical in substance to the originals. Some camp leaders and defendants did not have a lawyer present in the courtroom, and Camp Mystic's lead attorney, Mikal Watts, was absent. Camp Mystic attorneys said they were handling the withdrawal and refiling as a team job.

"What I don't like is the last-second notice," Guerra Gamble said during the hearing, which lasted roughly an hour. "I especially don't like it when I think I know what's going on because I'm getting emails talking about Spurs games and weddings in Italy, so I don't love that."

Addressing the midnight filing and Watts's absence, the judge said, "Filing a pleading at midnight and not showing up might be grounds for a different kind of action, but that's the kind of action I need to have a motion on." She added, "I'm not going to take that on my own." The judge also said she did not want young campers and counselors to be deposed more than once.

Much of the hearing focused on discovery and discussions on how to handle evidence collection and depositions across the five cases, each with separate legal teams.

Attorney Kyle Findley, representing a plaintiff family, addressed the arbitration push. "They are doing everything they can actually to keep it from a jury, and that's what we're here about today, is to make sure a jury gets to hear this evidence," Findley said. He said the Texas Arbitration Act applies because the cases involve a Texas camp, Texas campers, and Texas counselors. Findley also said, "No jury in America would ever hold them accountable."

Attorney Brad Beckworth said Watts signed the motion to withdraw while on vacation outside the country, and that lawyers for the families plan to file motions for reimbursement for appearing Wednesday and for sanctions in the coming days. "We're going to raise some issues with the court around that," Beckworth said. "This has been a long, protracted effort by the Eastlands and Camp Mystic to try to keep beating our parents into submission with bad tactics and trial by ambush and trial by combat," he said. Beckworth said, "They're struggling to keep their lives together and hold their families together, and every time we have to bring them here to one of these proceedings, it is reliving heartbreak over and over and over again." He also said, "These parents will never enjoy a basketball game again."

Twenty-five campers, two counselors, and the camp director died in flash floods at the Kerr County camp in the early morning hours of July 4, 2025. The parents of several campers, including eight-year-old Cile Steward of Austin, whose body has not been recovered, have filed wrongful death lawsuits accusing Camp Mystic of failing to protect their daughters.