The state's funeral regulatory agency dropped its lawsuit accusing two ex-staffers of violating attorney-client privilege after just six days, according to court records filed Wednesday.
The suit alleged ex-staff attorneys Sarah Sanders and Christopher Burnett violated their legal and ethical duties to the Texas Funeral Service Commission by publicly accusing their former employer of wrongdoing in the media and sharing privileged communications.
The commission has now, without explanation, nonsuited the case. KERA News reached out to the attorney general, the commission, and Sanders' and Burnett's attorneys Mark Anthony Sánchez and Alex Katzman for comment.
The commission sued in Travis County district court last week with the help of the Attorney General's Office, which represents the commission in litigation.
The suit came the same day KERA News published the details of cease-and-desist letters the AG sent to Burnett and Sanders last month. The complaint mentioned the lawyers' communications with KERA as alleged violations of their fiduciary duties. Interim Executive Director Maria Haynes signed an affidavit affirming the details of the suit.
TFSC sought a temporary injunction and restraining order preventing the lawyers from making further comments that could allegedly expose the commission to liability, sharing confidential information and otherwise undermining ongoing litigation, according to the suit. A hearing in the case had just been set for Sept. 11.
Sanders and Burnett have been outspoken in their support for former TFSC executive director Scott Bingaman, who was fired in June. In a letter he wrote to commissioners the day before their vote to fire him, he accused head commissioner Kristin Tips of unlawfully lobbying for funeral industry bills that could have benefited her own San Antonio funeral business, which has been sued multiple times over its handling of human remains.
As state troopers escorted Bingaman out of the building, Burnett called TFSC's actions "illegal," the suit alleged. It also claimed Sanders and Burnett were witnessed recording conversations and interactions between commission members and staff to gather evidence for Bingaman's suit against TFSC, which he filed in early July to challenge his firing.
The attorneys were fired July 21. They weren't given cause, they said, but they alleged it was because of their backing of Bingaman's claims against the commission.
Burnett said TFSC was to blame for the very issues commissioners had attributed to Bingaman's tenure: "relentless employee turnover and firings, bad morale, incompetent inspections, and inept or non-existent implementation of legislation."
Former TFSC executive director James White, who left the role last year, said he had a much different experience. The commission was behind on licensing and dealing with employee turnover in an already small staff when White started in 2022, but he said he worked well with Tips and other commissioners to improve on those issues.
White warned against describing Tips' advocacy for certain bills as "lobbying." Bingaman said he reported Tips to the governor's office multiple times for her "breach of public trust," but the office didn't take action publicly.
"I'm just wondering how much of this is someone just didn't get get an outcome that they wanted," he said. "Doesn't mean anybody's corrupt, doesn't mean there's any dysfunction."
He also said Bingaman mischaracterized comments White made in a letter to a commissioner. The letter made complaints about the commission's resistance to licensing veterans, White said, but it didn't imply widespread dysfunction.
"There's nothing in that letter to make that case," White said. "He wasn't handed a dysfunctional entity when he got there."
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