SAN ANTONIO – A decades-old drug charge could force Stan "Stosh" Boyle out of his position as Cibolo's mayor, depending on the outcome of a special city council meeting tonight.
Boyle's qualifications are being challenged after Councilman Brian Byrd revealed the mayor had apparently pleaded guilty and been convicted of a federal felony drug charge in 1998.
A federal plea agreement shows Boyle admitted to obtaining "slightly less than 100 grams" of MDMA, or ecstasy, with the intent to distribute it to others. Court documents show Boyle was convicted of "conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute" and sentenced to four years of probation.
READ MORE: Cibolo mayor arrested for tampering with governmental record
That conviction would appear to make him ineligible to hold office in Texas as the state election code requires a candidate for elected office not have "been finally convicted of a felony from which the person has not been pardoned or otherwise released from the resulting disabilities."
Boyle has refused to step down from his position as mayor. So it will be up to the city council to decide during a hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. if he has forfeited his position due to a lack of qualifications. Removing him would take a vote by three-quarters of the city council - in this case, five out of the six remaining members.
Neither Boyle or Byrd, who will appear as the complainant, will have a vote.
Boyle is already facing legal trouble over his past. The Texas Attorney General's Office arrested Boyle over that same discrepancy on July 26, just days after Byrd brought the issue to the council. The arrest affidavit showed Byrd was also the one who made a complaint with the Secretary of State's office.
MORE: Mayor of Cibolo could be forced out of office after decades-old drug charge revealed
Investigators say that in his 2017 bid for mayor, Boyle submitted an application for a place on the ballot, which included a sworn statement that "I have not been finally convicted of a felony for which I have not been pardoned or had my full rights of citizenship restored by other official action."
After investigators determined Boyle had not been pardoned for the crime and there was not "deferred adjudication" option in the federal system, they obtained a warrant for tampering with a governmental record, a Class A misdemeanor.
The mayor signed that same document for his 2019 re-election bid, though KSAT has not yet found any record of him being charged for that instance.
In a statement to KSAT 12 following his July 26 arrest, Boyle did not deny his criminal history, saying in part, the series of events was "nothing more than the politicization of our criminal justice system."
The mayor has been otherwise mostly quiet in the run-up to tonight's meeting, though he is expected to speak during the hearing.
If the council does not vote to remove him, City Attorney Frank Garza said it would take a judge's order to remove Boyle from office. Nor, Garza said, could either he or the city secretary force Boyle to removed from the November 2019 ballot.
Stick with KSAT 12 for more on this developing story.