The San Antonio Ethics Review Board (ERB) voted on Wednesday to take up an ethics complaint filed against District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte. The ERB also voted to schedule a hearing to review the complaint on Aug. 14.
The complaint from controversial San Antonio attorney Martin Phipps accuses Whyte of abusing his power as a city council member to support his ex-wife Jessica Joyner’s child custody case against him. Whyte’s wife Lorien Whyte previously represented Joyner in family court.
During a public event in the King William District, Whyte’s wife showed him a message she received from Joyner on April 26.
It was a screenshot of texts between Joyner and her child, who was with Phipps at the time. The child said Phipps had grabbed and yelled at her, and that she didn’t feel safe.
Whyte said he and Councilmember Manny Pelaez decided to tell Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, who also was at the event. He tried to reach William McManus, the San Antonio police chief, by phone.
“Listen, when you see something or hear something, you need to do something, right?” Whyte said during an interview in June.
Phipps’ spokesperson Colin Strother said Whyte’s wife is actively serving as Joyner’s attorney, and that Whyte acted to help his wife’s client.
Whyte said his wife is a personal friend of Joyner and hasn’t served as her attorney since mid-2023.
At the ERB meeting on Wednesday, Phipps said Whyte had edited text messages he shared in his request to dismiss the case. Phipps accused him of misrepresenting what went on that night.
“If my wife had called 911, and the police were coming, why was Marc Whyte getting involved?” Phipps said.
Whyte denied editing any of the text messages he shared.
Phipps said he believed if SAPD officers hadn’t gotten to his home first, sheriff’s deputies might have taken his children.
“If they hadn’t been there, they may have taken my children for no reason,” Phipps said.
Whyte has said he didn’t know SAPD was already on the way when he spoke to Salazar, and that he felt he had a moral duty and legal obligation to contact any law enforcement entity he could if a child was in danger.
In a statement after the ERB accepted the complaint, Whyte defended his actions.
“I look forward to it being resolved. As I stated previously, if I believe a child may be in danger. I’ll always take whatever action I can to most quickly ensure that the child is safe. I would do everything I did again.”
Phipps has been embroiled in scandals in the past related to his treatment of women, including a 2021 arrest for harassment of another ex-wife, comments from his former law partner TJ Mayes calling him a “serial abuser of women” with “homicidal fantasies,” and reports of inappropriate relationships with St. Mary’s University law students when he served as an adjunct professor there.
A judge dismissed his 2021 harassment arrest for lack of evidence.
Phipps said in the case of this ethics complaint, he wants the truth.
“Let’s get to the truth,” Phipps said. “Because in my experience, when you’re in a courtroom and you’re under oath, guess what? The truth comes out.”
The Aug. 14 ERB hearing will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the Municipal Plaza Building.
