On the evening of December 29, 2023, Vicente Agapito Rosales was driving near 1232 North Business Interstate 35, close to Bush’s Chicken in New Braunfels, when he was stopped by officers with the New Braunfels Police Department. According to a civil rights lawsuit filed in Comal County District Court on December 29, 2025, that brief traffic stop turned into a seven-month incarceration inside the Comal County Jail that Rosales says destroyed his business, cost him his home, and left him homeless.

Rosales alleges he had not committed any traffic violation when officers initiated the stop. The lawsuit states he was told he was being stopped for driving without an operator’s license, but that the redacted police report contains no specific articulable facts to support that claim. Believing the stop was unsupported, Rosales livestreamed the encounter on Facebook and asked officers to explain the reason for the stop and to call a supervisor.

A stop that escalated instead of de-escalated

According to the lawsuit, Rosales remained seated in his vehicle with his seat belt on and his hands visible. He says he told officers he was not a threat, was not trying to flee, and was not resisting. When officers ordered him to exit the vehicle, Rosales says he refused because he was confused and feared for his safety.

Rather than de-escalate or issue a citation, Rosales alleges Sergeant Justin Sowell shattered the driver-side window with a window-breaking tool and forcibly pulled him from the car without warnings, countdowns, or de-escalation. He says he was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and cut by broken glass.

Officers then searched his vehicle without a warrant or consent. They claimed they found what they described as “narcotics seeds” and treated the material as illegal drugs. Rosales was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, interference with public duties, and driving while license invalid.

Rosales alleges no field test was performed and that officers had no factual basis to classify the material as contraband. According to the lawsuit, later laboratory testing confirmed the substance was not a controlled drug.

How the December 29 charges played out

Jail and court records show three criminal cases were generated from the December 29, 2023 stop.

The interference with public duties charge was later closed as time served. The driving while license invalid case was closed through a non-prosecution affidavit. The most serious charge — possession of a controlled substance in the four-to-200-gram range — was filed in district court and later rejected by prosecutors, ending the case without a trial.

Those three cases were the only charges created by the New Braunfels stop.

Why Rosales remained in custody until July 2024

Although the Rosales alleges the misdemeanor cases were resolved early, he remained in the Comal County Jail from December 29, 2023 until July 30, 2024.

During that time, older matters that existed before the stop were processed. A failure-to-identify fugitive from justice case from October 21, 2023 was closed as time served, and a surety-to-surrender case tied to a prior possession matter was closed by non-prosecution.

But the charge that allegedly kept Rosales confined was the felony possession case from December 29. That case remained open while prosecutors awaited lab results. When those results failed to support the drug allegation, the district attorney rejected the case. Only then was Rosales released, per the complaint.

A life that unraveled while the case sat pending

Before the arrest, Rosales operated a contracting business specializing in bathroom and shower remodels. He had active jobs in Seguin and New Braunfels, including a walk-in shower project, when he was taken into custody. According to the lawsuit, those contracts collapsed while he was incarcerated. His occupational license was revoked. He could not secure new work. His home went into foreclosure. He now lives in a local shelter.

A long and familiar history in Comal County courts

Rosales has been moving through Comal County’s justice system for more than two decades. Records show at least 23 criminal cases since 2003 and more than 30 arrests dating back to the 1990s. Those cases include convictions for failure to maintain financial responsibility and driving while license suspended in 2003, resisting arrest in 2005, failure to identify a fugitive with intent to give false information in 2011, assault causing bodily injury (family violence) in 2016, and resisting arrest again in 2019. Many other cases — including criminal trespass, driving while license invalid, multiple traffic citations, and two DWI cases alleging high blood-alcohol levels — were dismissed, disposed, or closed by non-prosecution.

Despite that long history, jail records show a consistent pattern: Rosales was almost always booked and released within days or weeks. Even arrests for assault, resisting, DWI, or possession did not lead to long-term confinement. That pattern broke on December 29, 2023. For the first time in nearly three decades of arrests, Rosales remained incarcerated for more than 200 days.

What the lawsuit now asks

Rosales’s lawsuit names the City of New Braunfels and New Braunfels police officers A. Gonzalez, Justin Sowell, C. Penniman, K. Roy, A. Beltran, L. Martinez, B. Yeung, and J. Rogers, along with unidentified officers.

The suit alleges unlawful seizure, excessive force, unlawful search, fabrication of evidence, malicious prosecution, and prolonged unlawful detention, as well as failures in training and supervision by the city. It seeks more than $1 million in damages, including lost income, lost contracts, foreclosure of Rosales’s home, medical costs, emotional distress, and compensation for the more than seven months he spent in jail while the drug case awaited laboratory results that never supported a prosecution.

With the criminal cases tied to the December 29, 2023 stop now closed, the dispute over what happened that night has moved into civil court, where Rosales is asking the legal system to determine whether a traffic stop near Bush’s Chicken, a shattered car window, and a drug allegation that collapsed in court cost him his freedom, his livelihood, and his home — and whether the City of New Braunfels and its officers should be held responsible.

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