Alleged victim in state representative assault case speaks out

State representative's niece says aunt is liar

SAN ANTONIO – Independent State Rep. Laura Thompson's niece, Mercedes Robinson, is speaking out against her aunt who she said assaulted her.

Last week, Thompson turned herself in for a nearly four-year-old warrant for family assault causing bodily injury against Robinson. Robinson also testified in a case about the validity of some of Thompson's petition signatures to get on the ballot.

Thompson is the first Independent in the Texas House of Representatives in decades. She won a special election earlier this year, and is facing Democrat Barbara Gervin-Hawkins in the for a full term.

Thompson is accused of scratching and striking Robinson in a dispute over a paycheck in September 2012, according to a probable-cause affidavit. Speaking with KSAT 12 on Friday, Thompson denied the charge and said nothing physical ever happened with her niece.

"No I wouldn't put my hands on her," she said." She's bigger than me. I'm not a violent kind of person. So, I run from fights."

"Negative," Robinson said after hearing what Thompson had said. "She did."

Robinson is standing by her story that her aunt tried to physically remove her from her office. It's not all she's standing by.

"Laura Thompson has been lying throughout this whole entire election," Thompson said.

She also testified in the case against Thompson about the validity of her signatures to get on the November ballot. Robinson said her name was forged at the bottom of pages of signatures that she never gathered.

"Somebody showed me all these pages with my name on it, and I was like 'I didn't do that,'" she recalled.

A judge eventually ruled Thompson could stay on the ballot, though it was clear she didn't forget Robinson's role in the case.

The day after Thompson turned herself in for the domestic violence warrant, she released a statement, saying in part "this individual making the charge has proven herself to be untrustworthy, as noted when she perjured herself on the stand in Austin."

In her conversation with KSAT, Thompson said "I had to let her go, and didn't set well with her. So I know I guess this is my payback."

Robinson said she's tired of what Thompson has been saying about her.

She said she did help get some signatures for Thompson's campaign, despite the 2012 incident, noting "That's your family. Eventually you get over it."

That's not the case anymore though.

"Not this time," Robinson said. "I'm done with Laura Thompson forever."

A spokeswoman for Thompson declined to comment, saying "I think that we're through with this story."
 


About the Author:

Garrett Brnger is a reporter with KSAT 12.