Ep.249 Good Always Wins With Kirsta Melton Candidate for Hays County DA

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Where'll you be going?

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Existen. Damn, son. Where'd you find this? Go on, make it happen. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Welcome to Malet and Michelle. I'm Michelle and this is Steve. And people know me as the one who says what everyone else is thinking. And Steve is the one who wishes I wouldn't. So every Tuesday we're here to surprise you, disappoint you, entertain you, or occasionally teach you something by accident. No promises on which one you are getting today.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Michelle, you are known as No Filter Michelle. That is you. You think it and say it every single time.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Can't help it. Like even I'm surprised what comes out of my mouth sometimes. I said that.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Yeah, well, our guest today, Kirsta Melton, who's gonna run for DA, we're gonna get her in here in a couple minutes, but we cannot do the show without our sponsors. So we need to give a shout out to our sponsors.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Yeah, I've been using that word a lot now. Thank you for that little earworm there, Steve. I truly appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

And I want to remind everybody if you are subscribed to YouTube, we you get an early uh access to the podcasts on YouTube. We release those on Monday, and then our audio versions on Spotify and Apple Podcast and all the other podcasting platforms comes out on Tuesday. So go follow, subscribe, like, comment, whatever you do on YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

You can see our mugs on on YouTube.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Yeah. For whatever that's worth.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

God bless you. You can see that Steve wears the same shirt.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

I have a brand new shirt on. Oh never worn before.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Congratulations. Let me put the camera right on you.

SPEAKER_04 1:40

I'm gonna say green is a good color on me.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

I think it is. Army green.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

What color do you think that is?

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Olive, army green. Olive. And it's got a little Western cut on it. I'm very proud of this, Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

I'm proud of you too, Steve. Congratulations. I'll see you in your denim shirt tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Yes, I'll be back to my regulars tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

For sure. Deep Eddie vodka.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

The holidays are right around the corner, and you know everyone special on your list wants an assortment of deep eddie vodka shot bottles in their stocking or a bottle of their favorite flavor of deep eddy vodka under the tree. Don't disappoint them. Can you believe I said holidays already?

SPEAKER_02 2:17

I know.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

It's October. I already started my list. It's oh, it's October. South Star Bank. Have you ever called your bank and spoken to Hank in Taiwan? Not a South Star Bank.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

There's a Hank in Taiwan.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

You get a local banker on the phone every time or stop in and talk to them in person. South Star Bank has all your banking solutions. We love them.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Absolutely. And Black Slate Roofing and Black Slate Construction.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

Always hire local when you need a new roof or a planning your dream remodel. Black Slate comes from right here, and they will shoot you straight every time because they know reputation is everything. Call them today.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Ask for sexy hunter. Sexy Hunter.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

He's always there.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Hunter literally, I think he sees me and he wants to strangle me slowly with everything.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

Sexy Hunter.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

A mallet integrity team.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

I'm very proud of this one. Okay. I'm going to let me be the judgment. Some days in real estate you enjoy every minute. And other days you want to stuff your pockets with salmon and go lay down next to a grizzly bear. But when you call us, you never know what kind of day we're having. We handle the crisis so you don't have to. Mallet integrity team.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

That's right. I used to have a sign up at the front that said gatekeeper. Do you remember that? I did, yeah. And when before people would come, I was like, please go through Michelle first.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

See what kind of day Steve is having.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Hey, our guest today, Kirsta Melton. If you've driven more than about three blocks around Dripping Springs lately, you've probably seen the name Kirsta on a sign or two or twelve. I see them everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Did you just say Kirsta?

SPEAKER_04 3:57

Kirsta.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Kirsta.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

I said Kirst. Oh, did I? Well, it'll probably not be the last time. So we figured it was time to meet the woman behind all those signs. Kirsta is a Dripping Springs resident, wife and mom, and a 25-year felony prosecutor who has spent her career handling serious cases and working in criminal justice. Now she's running as an independent for Hayes County District Attorney with a campaign focused on professionalism. And there goes Michelle dropping stuff. Oops. Professionalism, integrity, transparency, and what she describes as putting principle over party. Today we're getting past the campaign signs and finding out what Kirsten Melton really is, why she wants the job, and what she thinks needs to change in Hayes County. Welcome to the show. Well, thank you all for having me. Yeah, we visited a little bit a week or so ago and got to know you, but I'm excited to have you in here and dig a little deeper and find out what's going on with you.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_04 4:54

Tell us, we always start off the show how you ended up in Dripping Springs. So give us give us the background on that.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Well, my family had been living uh for 15 years in the San Antonio area, um, ending up for the last couple in Bernie. And um at the end of 2014, there was a transition in my district attorney's office in terms of leadership. And so I started looking for a new position. And that position was here in the Austin, the greater Austin area. And so we came up here and started looking in Hayes County and specifically in Dripping Springs, great schools, and we had two kids and wanted to make sure that this was a place where they could flourish. And we also wanted to have a little bit of land, and so this was how we ended up in dripping springs.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Yeah, a lot of people end up with that same kind of story.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Well, I also read in your bio that you grew up on military bases all over the place, including Germany. You lived there for four years. When people ask you where you are from, what do you say? Uh I say I'm a military kid, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

So I grew up all over the place. Uh-huh. And um, you know, I've been in Texas full stop, you know, since I uh left my law firm in DC and we moved here in 2000.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

But so we've been here a long time.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

A long time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

That's what happens when you're 55, you know, where you're from becomes kind of a it's a generational question. Uh where I grew up is all over the world, and where I'm from at this point is here.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Well, we're the same age.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Look at us. We are double nickels for sure. So your dad was also, he was a JAG attorney. And how much of him do you see in the career that that you chose to do?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Oh, that's a great story. So my dad, from the time that I was little, had decided that he and all four of his girls were going to become the law firm of Lieberg, Lieberg, Lieberg. You know, just keep throwing on the Lieberg. So when he, right before he passed away, I was 13. And so he had been at that point, you know, talking to me about being a lawyer and talking about all those things. And of course, I was 13, which means there's no way I'm gonna be a lawyer. There's no way I'm gonna do anything like that. And I'm smarter and I know better.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

And, you know, as all of our children like to throw in our faces occasionally. Yes. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

Remember what you wanted to be at 13?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Um, well, I thought I wanted to be either a microbiologist. That was early on. I also thought about being a marine biologist. And even when I went to uh Cornell for college, I went in as a chem major so that I could go. At that point, I had resolved that law was potential, uh, but I also was still thinking science, and so I wanted a base degree that could go either way. Um and then by the end of my freshman year, I decided to be a government major and I decided that kind of law and policy were more where I was heading.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

And your so your entire professional life you've been in law?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Correct. Yeah. Yeah. No, my entire professional career, other than um I did two years right after law school at the Department of Justice in a special program for the antitrust division as a paralegal. Then I went to law school at UT. And then um I worked for just about a year, a little over a year, at an antitrust firm back in DC. And since 2000, I've been a prosecutor. Yeah. Oh, wow. And what's the work I've done?

SPEAKER_02 8:44

When you were a teenager, did you ever just like, I don't know, sling ice cream cones or anything like what? Or babies in?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

No, starting in eighth grade, I had a job working at a neighboring um farm. We lived next to some professional polo players who lived half a year in uh Sutherland Springs, Texas, and half a year in California. And so when they were in California, there was there were still horses on the property. There was a property itself to take care of. And so I got up every morning at 4 a.m. and trundled down, took care of animals, came back. We got my mom got ready and drove us um 48 miles into town to a little Christian school where she was teaching. Because after my dad died, my mom had the four of us. And so it was 13, 11, 9, and 7. And um, she had been planning on quitting her job and staying at home, being a stay-at-home mom. And obviously, once my dad passed, that was not possible. So she took a job at a small Christian school so that we could all be together and she could be at home with us during the summer. Oh that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

So you were the oldest, or you were the oldest. I'm the oldest. And so I I mean, gosh, you've always been the responsible one. That's that's a lot of pressure when your father died, also, to kind of really help your mother and dealing with all the emotions and everything that kind of surrounded that. Did any of your sisters also follow in any of the law the law path?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

They're not in the law path. We all currently work um to some extent, well, fully actually, in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation. So my sister, one step down, Kyla, is the head of she is the deputy director for truckers against trafficking, which is a nationwide 501 that my family founded more than a decade ago to engage industry in the fight against human trafficking. My sister uh Kindis was the original director of Truckers Against Trafficking, but she left to work in the corporate world, again using corporate um capacity to fight human trafficking. And so that's what she's doing. And then my youngest sister, Karen, she works for Amazon in their uh human rights.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

So, what what is it about how you all were brought up that makes you passionate about fighting human trafficking?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

That's a combination, I think, of both my parents. So my dad was a JAG attorney. He did both criminal defense and prosecution because JAG attorneys do both quite often. And my mom obviously, well, the way TAT got started is that several years before we started it, my mom sent the four of us a book. And she's like, girls, I think we need to do something about injustice. We've talked about that, and I think human trafficking is what we need to address. And so read this book. And that book was by David Batstone, and it was a book about human trafficking. And so it was my mom that prompted this, and my mom is the person who came up with the idea for truckers against trafficking and specifically starting our industry work with the trucking industry. And um I think just growing up in our household, there was an underlying sense of you do the right thing no matter what that is, and no matter what the consequences are, and even when that's really hard. Um and my parents were people who 100% lived that. Like my mom grew up training for the Olympics. At one point, she was um 11th in the world in the mile freestyle. She broke the American record in the mile freestyle. Wow. She was a highly competitive swimmer. And so when you think about the discipline that's required to do that, when you think about um the dedication, the hours and time, the Lieberg household, what we got in trouble for was not for trying and failing. It was for when we did not do our best, when we did not bring all that we had to the table. And so that was just kind of how we were raised throughout. And so when that comes to looking at the world, the other piece that flows into that is we were taught you have been given much, and it is your job to give as a result of that. And so caring about other people, again, we that was modeled by my parents. It's something that's kind of built into us as kids.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

Well, kudos to your mom for coming out of a difficult situation and uh raising such great kids, you know, out of what could have buried a lot of people, you know, and just made them just not be uh as good a person. Well, very disciplined.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

The very disciplined household.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

Yeah, that's uh a lot of people would just kind of fold up and go away and uh, you know, in difficult circumstances like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

So maybe your mom can come train Steve for me.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Yeah, I want to I want to be a a a force in the uh one-mile open water swim or one mile swim.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

I'll stink you in the open water.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

Yeah, I bet you will. I bet you will. Not uh just in the water, not under the water. Oh, okay, okay. You can't hold me down under the water. So Kirsten, uh so now you want to run for district attorney for Hayes County. Correct. And you're running as an independent, but I want to ask you just in general, what made you want to run for this position before we even talk about the you know, which party and all that and independence? Why do you want to run for the DA's office? Or to run the DA's office?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

I've been a prosecutor my whole career. And so I know the importance of the job. I know how it impacts the lives of victims, I know how critical it is for the community, and I know how hard that job can be, right? Because I've spent my career focused on cases involving child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, adult sex cases, family violence from assault to capital murder, human trafficking, injury to elderly, injury to disabled people. These crimes are devastating for their victims. They are also devastating for the families that go through them, and therefore for the broader community. So the importance and the legitimacy of the work is fundamental to me. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have stayed in this career for as long as I have. You've all have probably at some point in your life had good bosses and bad bosses, and you know the difference. When you have a leader who has done the work, who knows what you do as well or better than you do, who can help pull you forward instead of push you back, that makes a huge difference. Um, when you don't, oftentimes you feel like you are in a thankless position. And these are really hard jobs as is. And so you need somebody who cares for you individually, who cares for developing you professionally, who believes in your work and who can come alongside you and continue to exhort, encourage, and bring you to the place where you are doing the best that you can bring for the community. That's why you work in government. You don't work in government to make money.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

And we've heard the argument before on um people running for public office that are that have sat behind this microphone and the politics involved of running for office. And I'm sure you've heard this you're not enough right, you're not enough left, you're not enough center, and so you're running as an independent. And so explain that position. And I I was having to explain it as well. It's like, well, there's nobody running on the Republican side, there is somebody running on the Democratic side. Um, but explain the position of why you took to run as an independent. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

There are two reasons. The first reason is that I believe that justice itself should be nonpartisan, which means the work of judges, law enforcement, prosecutors should be based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Totally agree. Nothing else, right? Nothing in regard to status or wealth or position or citizenship, none of those things should factor in. We should be looking at things based solely on the facts and the law. The second reason I'm running as an independent is because I like at this point that most Americans do not believe that the party system is serving us. And so when I am talking about this space particularly, right, I want to be somebody who is speaking to the entire community, regardless of politics. Because look, y'all, you want someone in this space who's qualified to do the work, who has a record of doing that work, and who has done it according to the ethical standard that applies to prosecutors. Most people don't know this, right? But prosecutors have a specific ethical obligation, and that is to see that justice is done for victims, for people who are accused of crimes, and for the community. So what that means is I have to do the right thing, no matter the consequences, right? I have to wear the white hat. And if that means, as a prosecutor, that the right thing is to dismiss a case, then you dismiss a case. If that means the right thing is to go to a jury and ask for a life sentence, then you go and do that. But you need to be able to articulate why you did that based on the facts and the law, not based on who somebody is, not based on who they hurt, but instead right on the actual facts of the case and how those things line up with current law. So that's why I'm running as an independent. It's harder. You have to do all this work, you have to get hundreds of signatures to get on the ballot. You don't have the support of a party. You have but it gives you the freedom, right, to talk to everybody. Yeah. And to say, look, y'all.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Anybody of any party, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Correct. Don't you want credibility in your justice system? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

There's a lot of tension these days on both sides of the tough-on crime issue, with one side saying, you know, be tough and enforce the laws as they're written, and the other side saying, hey, you know, crime is circumstanced sometimes, and you know, and it's not always a fair system, and so maybe we should lean towards letting people go. Yeah. So what's your take on that as far-cause I generally the party that's tough on crime is the right side, and generally the party that's more lenient is on the left side. What's your take on that?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Aaron Ross Powell My take on that is that every case should be evaluated individually. And that when you make statements about being tough on crime or letting people go without consequences, those are statements that either show you don't understand criminal prosecution, or you're willing to really kind of glump people together. I'm not willing to do that. When you're evaluating a case, you're looking at what did this particular person, what are they accused of doing on this particular date or set of dates, to again, one particular person or a group of people, and you're looking at that kind. And you're comparing it to what the law says. So you've got to look at the circumstances individually. And each person has some criminal history, no criminal history, a wide swath of criminal history. You're looking at lots of different factors that are pertinent to that case, but they all pertain to the facts and the law. When let's say you have a situation where multiple people are engaged in conduct and people are like, this is really bad, right? Would you want to be judged the exact same way that the person next to you when they've committed a far serious, far more serious crime? No. Would you want all of those people glommed together? No. You don't want that, whether you're the victim of the crime or whether you're the accused. You want someone who can separate out emotion from the facts and the law, assess, make a determination about what is just to do and move that case forward, reject that case, figure out how it should be charged, right? Because there's all sorts of options within our charging system as well. What that also means, though, is that there are sometimes cases that we divert from the criminal justice system or cases that are referred to specialty courts because we're trying to address not just the criminal conduct, but perhaps another issue that flows alongside that, maybe like an addiction issue or a mental health issue. So those things are really important. And we don't just, again, you don't say, okay, in every case, I'm going to divert this or I'm going to send it to a specialty court. Again, sometimes you have a very serious case. Yes, perhaps that person has mental health issues. But when we're talking about child sexual abuse, when we're talking about violent crime, the mental health issue is not going to be our underlying biggest concern. The biggest concern is going to be public safety. So again, it's a weighing of each case and each individual. And the criminal justice system, when it doesn't function at that granular level or that individual level, it's doing a disservice. It's not doing its job. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

Yeah. If I was uh in the criminal justice system and I was being prosecuted by somebody that said they were tough on crime, that would worry me. But then the opposite side of that is we uh we hear stories all over Texas of DAs that are, you know, you hear we only see part of the facts of the case in the media. But we see the, you know, the facts of the case and we go, why did that why did they let that person go? Is it do you feel like in some places maybe those those crimes are being forgiven maybe for sort of political reasons?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

There has been a trend over the past, I would say, 10 to 15 years of defense attorneys moving into district attorney positions. Okay. And so when that is the case, quite often there are there's kind of an antipathy toward prosecution. You you don't believe that in the legitimacy of prosecution. And you may approach then criminal justice with a different mindset in that way. And so it has been many of those DAs that are are termed reform DAs or that fall into that category where these instances of repeat offenders uh getting out on bond conditions that probably weren't appropriate or uh being released into the community when they shouldn't, that flows primarily from there.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Now, I will tell you though, you're going to have mistakes in the criminal justice system because there's human beings that are running it.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

And multiple levels of different bureaucracies and different offices. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Yeah. I I to kind of piggyback on your question, I feel like politics have become incredibly tribal, right? You have to you have to pick a side. And what happens when the justice system and those politics, they they collide in that sense. And how do we right that wrong? How do we get out of this system of what we are in right now? Because obviously what we're doing right now is not working.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

I would agree with that. So the anytime you have politicization of the justice system to either side, then people lose their faith in the justice system. So prosecution should not work like this. I don't like Michelle. Therefore, I'm going to sort through Michelle's life until I find something that Michelle has done wrong. And I'm then going to sick law enforcement on Michelle, and then we're going to prosecute Michelle because I don't like Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Character character assassination versus that's not appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Nor should I look over here and say, hey, Steve's my friend. So even though Steve is engaging in crime, and we all see Steve engaging in crime, and even though there's evidence that he donated to my campaign.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

And even though we see evidence that Steve is engaging in crime, I am going to look away from that or say somehow that standard shouldn't apply to Steve. So one of the reasons that I am running, again, as an independent, but part of the language that I'm using is that we are all entitled to equal justice under law. That's what's printed on the Supreme Court building, equal justice under law. And the idea for of that concept is that there's one standard. One standard that applies to all of us. And when we come before the justice system, these differentiations that we are so, so tied to politically, money-wise, position, status, they drop away. They are intended to drop away. And we are intended to be seen equally before the law. And so the idea is then that the decisions that should be made in the justice system should truly be based solely on the facts, solely on the law. And that's the idea of you want a neutral magistrate, meaning you want judges who are making decisions based on the law. Based on the law. And you want jurors who are coming to the table, not knowing anything about this case, being able to hear and assess the evidence solely from the evidence that they're receiving in the course of that trial and making decisions. It's not ever a perfect system.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

No, and I think what I just heard also is that I am the unlikable one and Steve is more likely to be the criminal one. I just wanted to state that.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

I think anybody knows that. Because the you know, the criminal code is so huge and there's so many things. And so if you really wanted to get somebody, there's a way to get them. And that scares me to death. But do you I'm kind of going back to my question and what you mentioned about parties, do you think there's a way to make the DA's office not a party position, running the DA's office not a party position? And do you think you could make that influence if you get into that office?

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Aaron Powell I think you can, yes. Because even though, for instance, I have worked under like my DA in Bear County, right? She ran as a partisan in under a party position. And yet what she did overall was keep partisan politics away from us, meaning the assistant district attorneys and staff, the people who were doing the work. We weren't involved in politics. We were never asked to be a part of campaigning. We were not asked to be involved in any of that. And her decision making didn't, there wasn't just political decision making that dripped down to us, right? We did our work, we tried our cases, we moved forward, and we functioned in that space. And what's funny is, you know, people are like, well, I'm sure you knew the politics of everyone in your office. I actually didn't know the politics of everyone in our office. There was no reason because what we shared, we shared a commitment to justice. And so, you know, if my friend who may be entirely on a different political spectrum than I am, is trying a case and I can help on that case, then man, I'm making copies or running something over or going to sit in the clothes and argument or supporting in whatever way I can. It's not about where they stand politically.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

They're not wearing a scarlet letter like a P or an R.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Right. And nor are the people we're serving, right? So when you come into the district attorney's office as a victim of crime, I don't care who you are. I know you as you have been a victim of crime. What is my job? My job is to make sure that you are connected to victim services. My job is to make sure that we are making the referrals to help you with the needs that you are suffering as a victim. Maybe that's therapeutic, maybe that's housing, maybe that's stabilization, then maybe that's medical, whatever it is. We are attending to those needs. And then once we have you stabilized, we are pursuing justice on your behalf, which means we've got to build that case. We've got to pull in the documents we need. We've got to gather what other additional evidence there is. We've got to have conversations with witnesses. We've got to think through the case law. We've got to figure out how to strategically charge this thing. And we've got to prepare for an eventual trial. That's our work. And it has nothing to do with who you are, other than you are in need of the services of the district attorney's office because you have been a victim of crime.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

Yeah. I'd love to see that become a non-party position because I it always makes me squeamish anyway, thinking, okay, that's a Republican, that's a Democrat.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

But well, you're seeing people also probably at their worst moment in their entire life. And they're being their whole life is being judged based on a wrong decision or a wrong path that they have chosen. And the is everything okay? You gave me oh okay, I saw the handout. Okay. And uh I feel like it the system is so convoluted. And by being the DA, would you have been in a position to where you could make that process simpler or um services more readily available throughout the county?

SPEAKER_01 33:35

I think we can do, I want to say two things. One, you are correct that both for victims of crime and for people who are accused, their encounters with the justice system are sometimes some of the worst things that they are having to deal with. Okay. So one, I can make the commitment that regardless of who you are, we are going to treat you with dignity and respect in our office, whether you are a defendant accused of a crime or whether you are a victim. I do, and I have actually talked about the idea that we need to make the system easier for people to use. So how do we do that? When you're receiving, when you first are interacting with the justice system, you are oftentimes still either reliving trauma or in a series of kind of traumatic situations that are continuing to impact you and your family. So you don't always receive information easily or well or fully. So even if I sit down with you and I have that conversation, we spend an hour or two hours together, you may walk away with a very small portion of that. So I think one of the things that we can do to make it more navigable is to create videos that allow a victim or a defendant, frankly, to be able to go back and ask kind of query and get small chunks of information. So, how do I get help with blob? Click the video, right? And here's how you can do that. What's going to happen? I'm at this stage in the criminal justice process. What's going to happen next? So, one, that's a way that people could reference those things without reaching a human being. The other thing that I think is critically important, and I have seen victim advocates do this incredibly well over the course of my career, is we make people available to victims in the system.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

That's huge.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

And yeah, providing information about what's happening in the case, providing information about dates, providing information about referrals, being able to listen to a victim when they need to talk about something that's going on that's case adjacent. All of those things, critically important, and having that openness of communication back and forth. The justice system is hard, right? But I will tell you that when prosecution is done well, our one of our core functions is to empower victims to process through that system. They are not doing it alone. They are not doing it in a vacuum. We are walking alongside them in that process. And we are answering questions, providing information, bringing people alongside to assist and help and help them understand this is why this is important, right? Because it is hard to do.

SPEAKER_04 36:39

Yeah, and that attitude starts at the top. If you're doing that, then everybody that's in that office will do that. And the videos you referenced, would those be like YouTube videos somebody would go. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Something that we'd either have on the DA's website that people could access. Um, or yeah, alternately through YouTube or even both, right? As a a place where people can find that information.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

That'd be good. So you 25 years as a felony prosecutor, what have you learned along the way that you thought to yourself, if I'm ever in charge, I'm gonna do things this way?

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Um I think there's a couple of things. One is just remembering that people are at the core of all of this, right? So when I think about why I am a prosecutor, I didn't really come to a place where I could articulate that until about halfway through my career. Okay. Um and it was a human, my very first human trafficking trial that really helped me kind of put language to what I do and why I do it, and then what I would want to be the core of my office. So if you don't mind, I'll tell that story. So this case involved a 13-year-old kid. She was the second of four, and she, like many kids that end up in a trafficking situation, sometimes went to school and sometimes she didn't. So on this day, she didn't go to school, and instead she walked a couple of blocks to a house where she could purchase drugs. And she had brought along with her a lady from the corner store, and they were both there, and she purchased some pot. This house was owned by members of two brothers who were members of the Oregons, which was a prison gang in the San Antonio area that was fairly common. And so at some point, this child said, Hey, I need to go to the bathroom. So they took her to what passed for a bathroom in this house. This house was like, had gates and bars and, you know, beware of dog signs, but yet the porch was falling down. There was no running water, there's no electricity. Um, and there were outside doors on inside rooms, and they locked her behind a metal door in a wet passed for the bathroom. And they told the lady that she was with that she needed to leave and that the kid had gone back to the corner store. So the lady left. She went to look for the child. She wasn't there. She actually came back and was like, hey, the kid's not there. Um, you need to do something. And these guys are like, get out. We don't know where she is, leave. And so an hour to an hour and a half passed, and they went to that bathroom, they unlocked that door and they grabbed this kid and they began to drag her across the hallway to a room where they had a bed. So they stripped her naked, they spread her eagle, and they tied her to the bed with the yellow nylon ropes that people use to tie things to their cars, and then they raped her. And then they decided that they would keep her and they would sell her to anyone who had extra money after they bought drugs. And so for the next week and a half to two weeks, 20 buyers, some of them repeat buyers, paid $25 apiece to rape a 13-year-old kid, drugged up, tied up, and laying in her own urine and feces. Now, eventually, this kid was removed from this situation by a guy from the neighborhood. He'd seen her at the corner store, he'd used to tease her, why aren't you in school? Why aren't you doing what you're supposed to be doing? And he knew these brothers and he realized this was bad. And he was offered the same opportunity. And instead of taking it, what he did was ran her out of that location. So, very long story short, this case eventually ended up on my desk. And it was well more than a year before, it was a year before the case got investigated, and it was long after that before it ended up with me. And we went to trial on this case. And this was the very first trafficking trial in San Antonio, and one of the very first in the state. And this the first brother, both brothers were charged with human trafficking, compelling prostitution, aggravated kidnapping, and superaggravated sexual assault of a child. And we went on this first brother, and the jury found the defendant guilty. And at the end, we put on punishment evidence and they gave a life sentence. So after the case was over, we were able to go back and spend time with them. And we spent a lot of time with this jury. Hour and a half, again, two hours, we're all finally starting to pack up. And they asked, Hey, will you see her? I'm like, Oh yeah, we've got the second brother to try, we've got some buyers that have been identified. We'll definitely see her. And they said, You tell her that we gave life because she was worth it. We gave life because she was worth it. And that, okay, is why I do what I do. Because each of the lives that I'm dealing with as a prosecutor, each of the people in this community, your, you, your children, your grandchildren, right? They are worth it. They are worth our commitment to the rule of law, they are worth treating people with dignity, they are worth doing our job to the absolute best of our ability. They are worth all those things. So when I become DA, if I am graced with that, right? If the people of Hayes County trust me to do that work, that is the core of why I will be doing what I will be doing and how I will be running the office. So I know that's not a specific kind of policy piece. It is, it is. But it's the heart.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

I I that's the story you told and and the context of that, that's huge in my book. I want somebody like you in that office thinking about these things that way. That's the most important thing. We've got to protect the people that are victims.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

I I I totally agree. And I I think that um it's it's a very uncomfortable, especially with the um the subject matter, but it's a very uncomfortable subject matter that everyone needs to hear. And my question in regards to that is what is something in regards to human trafficking that kind of is happening right under our noses that us as parents and grandparents or just as citizens of the world, we need to know about?

SPEAKER_01 43:31

So, first, I would tell you that most people don't really understand the crime of trafficking. So the the way I describe it is that human trafficking is the exploitation of men, women, and children for forced sex or forced labor by a third party. So it's a very basic, simple explanation, but it helps us focus on the idea of forced sex or forced labor. The next thing I would tell you is that people often think that trafficking is uh has to Be about large sporting events or superhighways or ports, right? Or large cities. What I will tell you, and what I teach all over the state, and I teach on this subject of human trafficking everywhere, is that all that's required for traffickers to succeed is vulnerable population, willing buyers, and inconsistent enforcement, right? And we have that everywhere. So again, people are thinking, oh, trafficking only occurs to kids who are kidnapped, or trafficking only occurs under these specific circumstances. No, we have vulnerable populations throughout our community. And I guarantee you, if you were to start thinking about them, you can think about yes, children are vulnerable because children are growing. And frankly, their frontal lobe hasn't developed until they're 25 or 26 years old, even though their bodies are physically developing at 16 years of age, right? So that's a vulnerable population. People who are homeless, people who are dealing with addictions, people with disabilities, are often preyed upon by traffickers. Think about people who don't have status, right, in terms of immigration. These are all vulnerable populations that traffickers are like, huh, what can I do with that? The other thing is that traffickers, like domestic violence abusers, are people who will create vulnerabilities when they don't have one so that they can continue to exploit that. So when you think about it that broadly, you realize, ah, we have vulnerable populations in Hays Captain.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

But even being an affluent community here in Dripping Springs, we're not immune.

SPEAKER_04 45:56

Stuff only happens over there and other communities there, but it happens everywhere, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 46:02

It does. It absolutely does. When I train, I have a slide. And it starts with cities that go from the Corpus Christi, which is about 300,000, down to communities, uh a community in Frio County with less than 400 people. And this slide shows about 15 different jurisdictions across Texas what where I have dealt with either tried trafficking cases or developed the trafficking cases that were later tried in those jurisdictions. And it just shows you, again, it's not a population thing, it's not a money thing. What it is is that people struggle with a variety of just uh of vulnerabilities and traffickers are targeting the vulnerability. That's what they're looking at.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Christopher, walk me through the mind of an abuser. Like, like what I'm so glad I don't understand that because to me, or that, you know, I have boys, right? And I have a husband and I have a I have a brother. I don't understand that position because I don't understand that position.

SPEAKER_04 47:15

I've never been exposed to that.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

I've never been exposed to that but I but walk me through the mind of that just kind of general abuser.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

I will tell you that in general, one thing that pretty much most people who are engaged in physical or sexual abuse share. And that's a sense of entitlement. I am entitled to have my needs met over and above anyone else's. And so I can do whatever it takes to get those needs or wants met. So it's really core selfishness, okay? And therefore, I don't look at you as another human being who is autonomous, who has needs of your own, who is making choices. Instead, I look at you as something that I can use to meet my needs. So if you are doing that for me consistently and well, and I don't need to apply violence or abuse to get what I want, okay, I don't. But if you're not, right, and and at some point people are gonna need their own needs met, they're gonna focus on themselves, right? And it's viewing people as a possession or a thing instead of viewing people as people. That dehumanization piece, again, it goes to this core selfishness. It's it's this idea that nobody else really matters. What matters is me. And so what matters is then me being able to get or do whatever I want to do.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

However horrify horrific and disgusting.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

It doesn't really matter. One of my traffickers defined it this way. He said, if the world, um, he's like, if you look at what human beings can do as a circle, 360 degrees, he's like, most people will constrain themselves based on the law. And so they're only operating in a quarter of that 360 degrees. He said, but in his mind, right, he was entitled to do whatever he could do, regardless of the law. Because he had that ability to do it, and therefore he had in his mind, I should, I should do these things. It was a justification for selfishness. It's a justification for self-gratification and ignoring the consequences to anyone else. That is a large theme that flows through pretty much every case type that I've tried. Think about why people abuse children. Think about why people are engaged in domestic violence. Um, you know, we might think, oh, maybe it's because they like inflicting pain. Sure, there may be some percentage of people, but that's not the goal. The goal is I want what I want, I want it now, and I'm gonna do what it takes to get that, right? Again, you're compliant. There may not be no need to inflict any sort of pain or violence. You're not compliant, there will be.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

Yeah. I it's scary to me, and I think we insulate ourselves a little bit and kind of trick ourselves into not thinking about these things happening so that we can sleep at night. Sure. And uh, you know, and the the world's a scary place, and I I want to fall asleep peacefully at night. And if I had to think about these things all the time, I don't think I would sleep very well. So that's my question for you. How do you, how are you exposed to this stuff all day long, and then you can come home and have a good family life and be at peace.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Um I would I would tell you, for me, that comes down to my faith, right? I'm a believer. Um, and I I have always tried, and I am sure quite often failed, but I have always tried to follow what I believe God would call me to do. And so if you think about scripture, God basically says that if he calls you to something, he will equip you for that work. And so throughout my career, I have relied on that equipping. That doesn't mean there haven't been hard times. There have definitely been seasons in my prosecutorial career where that sense of um of evil, you know, can be overwhelming. But I fall back on remembering that God is bigger and that God is a God of justice, and that even when we do not see justice here now does not mean that there will not ultimately be justice. And so each case that I am in charge of, right, or that I'm handling, I submit that to the Lord. And so my job is to do all that I can here on this earth, right, to see that justice is done, but I leave that result to the Lord. The second thing for me is I do have an incredible husband. We've been married almost, it'll be 30 years in March, and he has um hung in there with me that whole time. And I have two awesome kids and I adore them. And so when I was in the DA's office in Bear County and they were little, and there were these days where you just feel a little overwhelmed, I would just come home and I'd be like, okay, snuggle time. It's snuggle time. You are correct. Time for junk food, being on the couch and watching a Disney movie, right? Why? Because good wins, right? Good wins. And I need to feel that. I need to remember that in the end, good wins. And then my mom has prayed for every single case I've ever done. She has prayed faithfully for justice to be done. Um, and then the last thing I would say is that for me, being outdoors in the in creation reminds me of, again, God's bigness. Um, and it kind of refills me up. And then the last thing is being around other prosecutors who care deeply about justice, who are doing the work, who know how hard it can be sometimes. Um, and we laugh and we tell stories and we, you know, kind of drama dump. Yeah, we kind of work through it because, you know, sometimes when like when I would come home when I first started as a prosecutor, my husband was like, Oh, I don't know that I can let you talk about some of this stuff because I can't necessarily receive it. Now, over time, God grew his capacity to do that. But also I learned, okay, well then we're gonna go to the Mexican Manhattan and we're gonna hang out as prosecutors at lunch and we're gonna talk about those things and in our space.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

Aaron Powell It's like uh Navy SEALs and Delta Force and stuff. They you can't just talk to somebody that's never been there. They can't they can't identify with the things. But if you have other people that have been there, then you guys can share stories and lean on it.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

After everything that you've kind of seen and done and been exposed to, and even your your family has been exposed to, do you feel like people are still just fundamentally good?

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Here's what I think. I think we I think there is still a great deal of good in people. I I do believe in original sin, right? I do believe that we all have the capacity to harm one another. And I have seen that play out in case after case after case. I have also seen great courage in people. I have seen um acts of sacrifice and love. I have seen victims who would not have told for themselves, would not have stood for themselves, but they are willing to stand for someone else. Like I had to tell because it was gonna happen to my little sister. I had to come and work here with the justice system through this case, not for me, but because Glenn Dukes killed Jackie, right? And I love Jackie and I will stand for Jackie. That's just an example in one of my trafficking cases. So there's just this at the same time that you are plumbing the depths of depravity and what people can do to harm one another, there is great good and great courage and great perseverance, and and I have seen in the lives of victims God bring good through things that were intended for evil. And that's powerful. That's powerful, and it's it's hope-giving.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

Yeah. I I I agree. You know, I there was a stint there for a while that I worked um as an expert witness with child protective services, and I was a supervised um facilitator for visitations, and there was a moment there uh um you talk about the courage of of some of these victims, but I also look at you and I say, that takes great courage for a woman like you to be faced with the devil himself, and you keep walking through the fire. Yeah. You just keep you keep doing it. You're like, come at me, come at me, because you have the armor of God around you. And so, as a woman, as a mother of a daughter and a granddaughter, I I'm whoo.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

We're thankful for people like you that do the hard work every day.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 57:11

Makes it easier for us to lay our heads down at night and know that.

SPEAKER_02 57:14

Somebody is fighting, somebody bigger than me.

SPEAKER_04 57:17

Not that everything's gonna be okay, because we don't live in that kind of world, but that somebody is fighting for justice. I want to give you a chance. You're running for the D to run the DA's office here in Hayes County, and uh you you know, right now the people are doing the hiring. So You bet. Yeah, what what's your pitch to the people that are listening right now about why they should hire you to run the DA's office in Hayes County?

SPEAKER_01 57:39

One, I love that question because when I'm talking to people, that's exactly what I say. Think of this as though you were hiring for your business, okay? And what do you do when you want to hire for your business? You put out a call for applications, essentially, a job description, and you ask people to apply. And then you look, you look at their resumes, you look at their experience, and you say, okay, this pile of resumes that's come in, these people have never done the work. I'm not gonna talk to them. Why? Because I have this group of people over here who have done the work, who have a history and can show me, and there's references there, and I can go back or I can publicly look at what they have done on Google, right? I can look up their cases. And and so what I would say to you for this role, this is a big job. There are 114 full-time employees at the district attorney's office. We are responsible in Hayes County for thousands of cases every year, okay, and looking at those cases and making decisions on those cases. And not only that, it's $12.6 million of taxpayer money. So, again, you want someone in this position who is a prosecutor, who has tried every type of case and who has done it for a long time and has the perspective of thousands and thousands of cases that they have reviewed and prepared, and hundreds and hundreds of witnesses that they have sat down and talked with. You also want somebody who has led others, right? So somebody who has crafted teams of investigators, prosecutors, victim service personnel, staff who knows how to make those people work well together and to inspire them to do all that they can with themselves, their capacity, their time, how to bring the best from those people. So you want that leadership experience. You also want someone who has worked with taxpayer money and recognizes that that is a sacred trust. And so, even just when I was a baby ADA, right? My salary comes from the government. If I am spending money on a case to bring in witnesses, that's taxpayer dollars. Like we don't use this money for anything other than what it's supposed to be for. When I was at the attorney general's office, I was able, the legislature gave me a designated budget for my human trafficking team. So I had to kind of learn the basics of how a budget works and when you can shift money and when you can't, and how you do that governmentally, and who has to approve that and what decisions you can make, and what has to go back to, let's say, the county commissioners in the case of the county, when you're trying to change things and make different um decisions within that budget structure. So you want somebody who's had experience with taxpayer dollars. You also want someone who has worked with the legislature, and that might be a little bit counterintuitive, but the idea here is that the law is always changing. And there, the Texas Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure are not complete in the sense that there are things that are wrong sometimes in the code. There are gaps in the law, and the only way we find that out is by trying cases, by seeing how that law is applied. And then as prosecutors, we often have to go back and say, hey, this needs to be fixed. We need another law that applies to this. There's really a gap here, this punishment range should change, et cetera. So I handled the legislative agenda for the state of Texas on human trafficking for multiple sessions, which means I worked with the Texas statewide task force on human trafficking. I chaired that group, had 70 statutory members, had another like 300 plus uh volunteer members in the anti-trafficking community. We identified gaps in the law, we drafted legislation. I then helped educate legislators and their staff. I testified on the bills, I helped produce resources for them as they're making voting decisions and was a big part of that process. So again, I've been there, done that, right? What you want in this job is someone who can lead by example and is comfortable, not someone that is going to have to be learning things.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

No on-the-job training.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:26

No on-the-job training, right? You're always gonna learn. You always have to be open to new information.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

But you don't want somebody starting from scratch at such an important position for our county and the the fragility of where we are in this county right now. And I have to just say, you know, along with your job applications, you're you're looking at uh references and some of your endorsements I've been very um very impressed with. And one who I think has been one of the best things that has happened to Hayes County is Sheriff Anthony Hippolito. That is and um, you know, I I think people should also look at who is endorsing you and who has not been endorsing you. But one of the things we asked Anthony when he sat here um in our mic behind our microphone was to kind of not make light of it, but what's the craziest rumor you have heard about yourself that people just they're just making shit up?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

Um I think the biggest thing uh well, one, the biggest thing that's currently on the internet is that my opponent is running unopposed. Oh I'd say the biggest thing is that I don't exist. Um that I'm the real person. Yeah, and that I'm not on the ballot. She's right here in front of us. And you can go to the Hayes County Election Commission and you can actually look at the sample ballot, and you will see that I am there. Kirsten Melton, IND, independent.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:51

What would be the reason they're saying that?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

Great question. Don't know. Don't know if it's intended to be false and misleading. Um, but I would say that's the biggest the biggest one that's out there is that my opponent has no opponent. You're the most visible invisible person I've ever met. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:09

We've got signs everywhere. I do my best. I just want to clarify, Anthony endorsed Kirsta. No, no, not officially. Not officially. Okay, all right. So we're that didn't happen. Because when you were saying it, I was like, look at the endorsements.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Look when Anthony was getting his endorsements. Yes. You got to look at the people that that are standing behind you.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:28

I'm glad I asked for clarification on that. Yeah. Um did you have another question?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:33

No, you know, I had a I had a I think the most hard-hitting question that I had for you of the whole interview that I have is you have a great set of hair. Thank you. And you know, a woman like when when when we get to a certain age, you know, we see a lot of people that their hair doesn't as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:54

It's a dig at me.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:55

You know, I'm just gonna say, Steve. Um, but uh yeah, I think if that's the meanest thing or the nicest thing that somebody can say about you, you know, vote for the hair.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:08

That's what I'm gonna say. Kirsten, the hair.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

You do have a lot of hair, yes. And when it's humid, I it has to be pinned up from one girl to another, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:21

I have no idea what you all are talking about. None at all. Well, I Kirsten, I do have a last uh a last question. You ran the Greek marathon.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:29

I did. Yeah. That is so cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:30

Yeah, now you're into rucking and you and one of your bucket list items is climbing Mount Rainier.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:36

So, my my question for you, are you a person that just enjoys doing hard things, or are you a person who thinks you know what life Oh my gosh, I have just completely lost that question. Do you like just doing hard things?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:49

I do like doing the hard things. My mom will remind me, she'll like, don't you remember back in like fifth grade, you were supposed to pit do a Paper on an explorer, and you picked this guy that nobody had ever heard of, and we couldn't find any information on, you know, because back then there's no internet. So you're going through the encyclopedia and you're in the library trying to find books, and you know, you can find them on Vasco de Gámez, but you couldn't find them on my guy that I picked. And so she's she will tell you that's kind of the beginning of that. I do like to do things that are challenging because when you accomplish them, there is nothing it's that old saying that everyone's mom or dad has told you, right? If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. And only, right, if really hard things are the things that are going to result in the kind of impact or result that you want. So in that way, I've often thought of myself as like um, I know this is gonna sound really funny, but you know those dinosaurs um that have the hard shell on their heads and they kind of bang into things like a pachycephalosaurus, right? Part of this work is you're banging your head. And sometimes it feels like it's you're never gonna get through, whether that's the bureaucracy, whether that's an injustice, whether that's a really hard fact pattern, whether that's just trying to bring change culturally to something like human trafficking. And yet, if you're called to continue to do that, to to bang your head, to to push through, then that's what you're called to do, right? I'm not called to bring the result, I'm called to do the work, to pursue the work, to pursue the justice, to see that justice is done, and then to leave the results up after I've done all that I can do. All that I can do. So yeah, for me, like the wrecking is just an attempt to um do two things at once, right? I'm doing cardio and I'm doing some weight training.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:08

I'm probably listening to an audiobook or I am listening to an audiobook or bottle.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

The thing that you can't do that you said in your bio is you're a terrible gardener. And what is currently dying in your yard right now?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

Oh, it's very sad. I I have one cosmo that has bloomed. That was very exciting. I um what is dying? Everything that's on one side of my house. Yes, I can kill Lantana. Oh, geez. Okay, I can kill Lantana. I don't mean to kill Lantana. I try really hard. You're a busy lady. I can kill Lantana. You are a busy lady. And that that requires a gift, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

Oh yeah. So where can people find out more about your campaign?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:52

Uh Kirstamelton.com. Uh that's my website. You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram. It if you just type in Facebook for Kirstamelton, you will find it. Um, same thing with Instagram. Those sites will pop up. But Kirstamelton.com has the most um hair. It definitely has the most hair for sure. And it also has the most um large amount of information. Oh, well, great.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:18

And people can donate there to your campaign too. So and it's Kirsta, not Kirsta. That's how you get called Kirsta always.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

I do. It's Kirsta like ear. Again, we go back to my mom. She used to embarrass me when I was a kid. She'd be like, Kirsta like ear, and point at her ear, and I'd be like, Mom. But now I do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:37

Yeah. Well, I'm I'm glad we were able to sit down with you. I'm gonna vote for you. I feel very comfortable now. You're very knowledgeable, you're well spoken, uh, you got great spirit about you, and you're not afraid of the hard work. And so uh this conversation today has made me uh I'm gonna back you.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:54

Well, thank you. I happen to agree, and I think so. You have the official endorsement of Mallet and Michelle podcasts. Let's just see who that pisses off.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:02

So I I'm I'm thrilled that somebody like you would want to run for that office. And I think when you get in there, you'll do you'll do wonderful things. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:13

Thank you for taking the time with us. We really appreciate it. Deep Eddy Vodka just gave your espresso martini a serious Texan upgrade.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:23

Introducing the highly anticipated Deep Eddie Espresso vodka, made with real espresso, pure cane sugar, and 10 times distilled 80-proof vodka.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

You'll taste rich, roasted coffee, smooth vanilla, and toasted caramel.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

Serve it chilled, pour it over ice, or shake up the easiest espresso martini you've ever made.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:44

Deep Eddy Espresso Vodka.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:46

Bold coffee flavor.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:48

With absolutely no intention of helping you behave. Available nationwide.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:55

South Star Bank has remained true to its Texas roots for over 100 years. A commitment to the people and communities they serve, along with flexible financial solutions, allow their clients to shine. Mortgage loans, checking accounts, or complete business solutions. South Star Bank is your financial partner. South Star Bank, trusted by professionals, backed by tradition, built for Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:20

SouthStarBank.com, member FDIC, an equal housing lender. NMLS 410-624. Texas weather doesn't mess around, and your roof takes the hit.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:31

Hail, wind, heat, it all adds up fast, which is why you don't want to guess when it comes to your roof.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:37

Black Slate Roofing handles everything from inspections to full installs.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:42

They keep it simple, they keep it honest.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:44

Repairs, replacements, whatever your home needs. Done right with no shortcuts.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:49

Because your roof is your first line of defense, and it better be a strong one.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:54

Black Slate Roofing. Done once, done right.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:57

Black SlateRoofing.com.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:02

This show is brought to you in part by the Mallet Integrity Team, serving Dripping Springs, Austin, and the surrounding areas of Central Texas since 2004. When you need the best real estate advice and service, give them a call at 512-829-2062. Or email them at malletintegrity team.com. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:26

Welcome back. And apparently, after five years of podcasting, today we're introducing a new segment called What the Hell Did Steve Delete?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:33

My little fat fingers were pushing the buttons too fast, trying to save that. That was a really good monologue that we did right after uh Kirsten Melton and something happened and it's gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:46

Well, I asked him to cut one little thing, and uh apparently he he said, I'm sick of listening to you talk, and he cut everything that I said.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:54

And then you would think, okay, in the day of computers, you just hit undo edit, and it was be there, but I hit a couple buttons and it was not there. It's gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:04

That's okay. Well, if you were fortunate enough to watch us on Instagram live, sometimes we go live on Best of Dripping Springs or Best of Drip.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:11

You can hear it and see it there.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

And on our YouTube channel, you can so we're not gonna rehash the whole monologue.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:20

If you're here listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, this is it. It's just the Maya culpa, me apologizing for deleting the episode. But you are it's not gone forever. You can still listen and watch it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:31

Yeah, because we had we talked about Chihuahuas, we talked about podcast ratings, we talked about the Sawyer Ranch Extension, you talked about the what was the other thing you talked about?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:40

Playgrounds where parents aren't allowed and kids get saws. Oh yeah. And then AI wants to run your life with a cute little mascot. It was a really good monologue. You're gonna want to go find it on Instagram or YouTube because you don't want to miss all that. And I I'm sorry, I will try and be better. Either that or we're gonna hire uh uh audio technician next year to to do all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:03

You know, uh maybe we will. Maybe we'll just have when we're sharing our office with Joe Rogan, maybe we'll have to have to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:13

He's pretty good. Yeah, maybe we'd let him do it. Maybe, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:16

But there is one thing that I wanted to rehash just because we had Kirste Melton on. Early voting in Texas starts Monday, October 19th and runs through Friday, October 30th, um, ahead of election day on Tuesday, November 3rd. So just a little quick vote. If you're here in Hayes County, you can vote at Dripping Springs Patriots Hall or the Hayes County Precinct for Office. If you're other, if you're within the Texas Hill country, just look to see where you are supposed to vote.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:47

Get out and vote.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:49

It's a big election, a lot of things on the line. It's time to make the time to go vote. Um For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:55

And you know, if you're a if you're a vote-down ballot um kind of person, uh I s I still encourage you to go do your research on the candidates and uh Kirste Melton. Again, she's running as an independent. So um can I would say consider?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:12

Next week we have Jeffrey Tawa coming in to talk to us. He's running for Hayes County. Judge County.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

Hayes County judge. Uh Ruben Basara is uh did not win his primary.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:24

So that's a big election coming up. And you're gonna want to tune in for that to hear his policy proposals.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:30

And we have had in the past uh Rob Um McClellan McClelland on. He's running for Hayes County Commissioner. Um and we have also a couple of times invited Angie Unger, his opponent, on.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:44

Yeah, who had at one time uh said she would come on and then at the 12th hour said, Ah, I can't make it. I got something that came up. But Angie, you're welcome. We'd love to have you come sit in our studio and visit with us and tell us what you what you are believing in and what you want to do if you get in office. So love to hear it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:01

Yeah, we want to give you a voice, give you a microphone, and not just behind a debate stage. We want to be able to find out who you are, why you are, and and what's important to you in this county.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:10

I want to mention mention one other thing. Uh um this is very early on, but next week we'll talk about it a little bit more. There was a a uh uh law that went through that was passed about that the Hayes County uh Hayes Trinity Groundwater Conservation Group has uh was working with the legislature to get passed, and it actually passed where they would allow people from the groundwater conservation onto your property, and that all wells in the county would have to be metered, even residential wells. And it passed and Governor Abbott vetoed it. So I'm gonna I'm looking for the statement that Governor Abbott put out uh about the veto, but that also is going to be on a ballot pretty soon. Um and if you're in if you believe in private private property rights, you need to do some research on that too. But I'll have more information in the coming weeks to share about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:02

You could be running around naked on your property, w dancing with your chickens, and somebody just walks in.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:07

You have every right to do it. And if and if if this law gets put into place and it passes and it's signed into law, uh you could have somebody just drive up to your gate and open the gate and come right on in anytime they want.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:19

I would love to see how that's gonna play out.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:21

Yeah, I know, huh? Yeah. Yeah. So well, I am so sorry everybody for messing up that monologue, but it's not gone forever. Go to YouTube. You can see it in its entirety, hear it's in its entirety, and it's worth listening to.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:34

Yeah, but nothing from Kirsten Melton's uh podcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:37

Her whole yeah, her whole podcast was here. You've if you've been listening since the beginning of this one, it's there and it's on uh YouTube, and we don't have those on Instagram, so but uh it's all still available. So fat fingers, I gotta go on a diet with my fat fingers.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:54

You don't even know how you did it, do you?

SPEAKER_04 1:17:56

I don't. No. I just I was trying to cut that track and just all of a sudden I looked up and I'm like, where'd it go? And then I hit undo and it didn't come back, and I hit undo and it didn't come. I was like, Well, what happened? But I don't know where it went.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:09

We'll forgive you.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:10

It's probably in the trash can over here behind me somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:12

But you're you're forgiven. Maybe a little more training. You know what?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:16

Five years, that's the first. I think the only other mistake I made was with Bill and Michelle from Pig Pen. We recorded about five minutes before I looked down and I said, I'm so sorry. I didn't hit record. Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:30

No, you know what else? There was one other one. Was there another one?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:32

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:34

But but you were on vacation, and it was when um we released Mayor Bill's, but instead we released an older Mayor Bill one. But that's okay. Oh that one his was still there, you just had to search for it.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:46

Okay. Well, there you go. You had vacation on that. That wasn't my fault. I was in the hospital on painkillers, so I didn't have anything to do with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:53

No, you were on vacation.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:54

Oh, that was in July. That's right. Yes, that's right. Well, I try and it wasn't painkillers, it was just that I was in the mountains and I didn't care if it wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:03

I don't care.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:04

I'm in the mountains.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:05

That's fair. That's fair. Well, thank you guys for joining us. And again, just go to our YouTube channel or you can go to our Instagram. We always share our lives, and um, we would love to have you.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:14

When you're there, subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Instagram, please. Helps out a lot. So thank you all for joining us, and uh, we will talk to you in entirety next time.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:24

Catch you next time. From rodeo clowns, teachers or doctors, and everyone in between. Texans have one thing in common: hard work deserves smart banking. At South Star Bank, whether you're buying your first home, building a dream ranch, or just managing daily finances, our 16 branches across Central Texas are here for you. Southstar Bank, trusted by professionals, backed by tradition, and built for Texas. Southstarbank.com, member FDIC, an equal housing lender. NMLS 410624.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:55

The Deep Eddie Vodka tasting room may be closed, but don't get it twisted. Deep Eddie vodka isn't going anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:03

It's still made right here in Texas, and you can still enjoy every flavor, including the new espresso vodka.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:10

Pour it over ice, mix up your favorite cocktail, or keep it simple with soda and a lime. The tasting room chapter may be over, but the good times are still being poured.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:19

Deep Eddie vodka. Find your favorite flavor near you.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:23

Enjoy responsibly available nationwide.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:28

This show is brought to you in part by the Mallet Integrity Team, serving Dripping Springs, Austin, and the surrounding areas of Central Texas since 2004. When you need the best real estate advice and service, give them a call at 512-829-2062. Or email them at malletintegrity team.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:52

Ever had a contractor disappear halfway through a job?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:55

Or leave you with work that just isn't right?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

That's where Black Slate Construction steps in.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:00

They fix bad work and actually finish the job. And here's the difference they're also master electrician licensed. So whether it's cleaning up a remodel or installing an EV charger or upgrading your panel, they do it right.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:13

Start to finish.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:15

No shortcuts, no second guesses.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:18

Call Black Slate Construction.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:20

Or visit Blackslate Construction.com. Even we're surprised by what we say sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:28

Big mouth, small town.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:30

Follow us on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:34

Leave us a review or email us at Maladamichelle at gmail.com. I'm surprised we haven't been canceled yet.