Eanes ISD Trustee Kelly Marwill asks Travis County district court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against her – submitting she was protected under free speech rights to use bogus court documents in her 2024 campaign that were heavily altered with help from her campaign manager Kimberly Taylor.
AUSTIN, TX - October 1, 2024 – As the defamation lawsuit between Aaron Silva and Eanes ISD Trustee Kelly Marwill and her campaign manager Kim Taylor unfolds, critical questions have arisen regarding Marwill’s involvement in a coordinated smear campaign conspiracy orchestrated with the help of her campaign team in the closing days of the election. The lawsuit, which highlights the alleged intentional manipulation and alteration of nearly 20-year-old court documents to defame Silva, challenges Marwill’s claims of ignorance and calls into question her professional level of judgment and fitness to serve on the Eanes School Board, demanding that she step down.
In court filings, Silva does not contest the final election results and sues Marwill and Taylor for $1,000,000 to restore fair elections, ending the common practice of smear campaigns which have plagued honorable parents running for Eanes ISD trustee seats for at least the last 5 cycles. Silva vows to utilize his court winnings to compensate all donors defrauded by Marwill and Taylor's actions before covering his legal fees and then donating the remaining proceeds to charity.
In response to the lawsuits, newly seated Eanes ISD Trustee Kelly Marwill filed documents in Travis County district court on August 15, 2024, admitting that she publicly opined upon and lended her campaign’s official validation to the credibility of heavily altered and falsified court documents from 2006 framing her opponent Silva as a “domestic abuser.” She originally stated that the altered documents were only used in her campaign after, “voters brought them to her attention” April 30th. But later in her response to the lawsuit, now clarifies that she did, in fact, knowingly access and campaign with documents from anonymous Instagram sites and that she was unaware as to who was responsible for posting them – underscoring a shocking lack of judgment by a school board trustee with the responsibility of enforcing internet anti-cyberbullying policies within the student population she is elected to lead. Marwill has asked Travis County district court to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds of her free speech rights. Do voters, parents and taxpayers believe it is “free speech” to falsify court documents in order to spread lies about a member of the community for the purposes of damaging his reputation?
Marwill did not seek clarification from Silva or his campaign on the truthfulness or validity of the unverified claims (posted at 10:00 PM April 30th) before extensively commenting on them spreading them publicly. Marwill hurriedly issued a full throated and polished statement to thousands of voters on the very next morning May 1st - warning parents about the safety of their children [around Silva] - just days before the May 4th election. The Silva campaign notified Marwill the documents were fake, untrue and had been manipulated yet she continued to campaign on their credibility and never issued a public retraction. Counter-posts made on Marwill campaign and personal social media accounts by the Silva campaign and other concerned voters [demonstrating the fabrication and manipulation of the court documents] were deleted by Marwill campaign social media moderators.
Statement from Aaron & Ivana Silva at Eanes ISD Board Meeting
Background, Key Allegations and Premeditation
The controversy centers around a January 2006 California temporary restraining order application that was requested in secret, never served to Silva, never heard by a judge and dismissed within days. Silva had no knowledge of the California allegations until they were unearthed, manipulated, and repurposed by Marwill’s opposition research efforts 18 years later during the 2024 trustee campaign. Silva lived in Contra Costa County until June 2013 when his wife and two children moved to Austin. According to evidence obtained by the Silva legal team from the Contra Costa County clerk, Marwill’s campaign manager Kimberly Taylor requested and obtained the court documents on April 17th, 2024. Silva alleges that Taylor and Marwill then selectively removed critical exculpatory information from the documents - demonstrating they were untrue - and then laid in wait for 13 days before intentionally posting the maliciously altered documents on two anonymous Instagram accounts (@Character_Counts46, @EanesKids1st) that were owned, operated and/or managed by Taylor and Marwill on April 30th, the last day of early voting. The posts were designed to damage Silva’s reputation and suppress voter turnout in the final days of the Eanes ISD School Board election. The altered court documents have subsequently been scrubbed from these sites and many others since Silva announced the lawsuit.
Further demonstrating the premeditated and intentional nature of the campaign smear, Catherine Walker, the third Trustee candidate in the same race, verified to Silva that her campaign received advance warning from individuals in the Marwill campaign team that, “something big was going to happen” before the defamatory posts were made on April 30th.
Marwill Attempts to Distance Herself from Political Operative
Despite the serious nature of these allegations, Marwill has attempted to distance herself from Taylor, portraying her in court documents as merely a low-level “volunteer” and “block-walker” with no significant role in the campaign. However, this narrative is contradicted by the fact that Taylor, in her capacity as Marwill’s campaign manager, close friend and professional political operative was deeply involved in the campaign’s strategy and execution. Taylor operates Taylor Collective Solutions (TCS) – a political PR firm in Westlake Hills. Taylor served previously as campaign manager for Eanes Trustee Heather Sheffield and Kim McMath. Taylor is also co-founder of the Eanes for Equity organization and has listed former Austin Mayor Adler, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke as her past clients on the TCS website.
Marwill’s Claims of Ignorance and the Evidence Against Them
In her motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Marwill claims that she was not involved in the creation or dissemination of the slanderous content. She asserts that she did not operate or even know who owned or operated the anonymous Instagram accounts and denies any responsibility for Taylor’s actions.
Marwill claims she has free speech rights that protects her ability to disseminate information, even if harmful and defamatory, that she believed was in the public interest to know because Silva was a “public figure” at the time.
This defense raises critical questions:
Timing and Preparedness: The defamatory posts appeared on the last day of early voting Tuesday, April 30th at 10:00 PM - 13 days after they were obtained from Contra Costa County. Marwill was prepared to publicly comment on these allegations within hours the following morning May 1st with a lengthy, well-polished and professionally written statement on social media. This timing and quality of the statement suggests a level of coordination that is inconsistent with her claims of ignorance.
Role of Kim Taylor: Marwill’s attempt to minimize Taylor’s involvement in the campaign is at odds with reality. Taylor’s actions, including obtaining and manipulating the court documents, demonstrate that she was more than a peripheral figure—she was integral to the campaign’s operations. To spread blame and culpability further, Marwill states in court filings that Christie Schultz was her official Chief Marketing Officer, not Taylor.
A Call to the Eanes Community, Voters & Taxpayers
We must all be committed to upholding fair, ethical elections and therefore we urge the community to carefully reconsider Marwill’s fitness for office.
The alleged underhanded actions taken by her campaign manager Kim Taylor, with Marwill’s obvious knowledge and encouragement, reflect a serious breach of the trust that voters place in their leaders. A conspiracy to intentionally alter official court documents and then frame Silva as a common criminal is the lowest form of smear campaign and cannot be tolerated. Marwill is unfit to lead under these circumstances.
For the good of the community, Marwill must step down.
IF Marwill DID NOT know Taylor was behind this deviant behavior – why would a candidate for Eanes school board trustee not exercise extreme caution when engaging with hearsay information, especially when that information comes from an anonymous source? Typically, a responsible adult, candidate or competent leader would likely seek to verify the truthfulness of such claims before extensively commenting on them publicly, especially when the information pertains to a sensitive issue like allegations of domestic abuse that could irreparably harm another person’s reputation. We would all expect the same behavior from children when interacting with social media hearsay content.
Why didn’t Mrs. Marwill, a mother herself, consider the impact of her public statements - questioning the safety of our children [if Silva was elected] - on Silva’s wife and family?
For the good of the community, Marwill must step down.
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