Kendall County DWI Guide

Boerne's commercial real estate is expensive enough that some of the private tow operators on the county's rotation list don't maintain a real storage lot at all — they park impounded cars on the front lawns of their own houses. A family expecting an industrial gate and a staffed counter can end up standing in a residential neighborhood instead, and the only way to avoid wasting a trip is calling the Sheriff's dispatch line first to find out exactly which operator has the car and where that operator actually keeps it.

Getting the Car Back

There's no central impound lot — Boerne PD and the Sheriff's Office both run a rotating list of private operators, so dispatch (830-249-8645) is the fastest way to locate a specific vehicle rather than guessing or calling around. Many of these small operators run on minimal staffing and close for an hour at lunch, and some quietly stop processing releases well before their posted closing time — calling ahead to confirm someone will actually be there beats showing up unannounced and eating another day of storage fees. If the registered owner is the one in custody, the tow company needs a notarized Vehicle Release Authorization naming a specific proxy; a spouse or parent showing up with just a shared last name gets nowhere, and coordinating a mobile notary to visit the jail adds real time to the process. For anyone facing a third or subsequent DWI, the stakes go beyond storage fees entirely — Chapter 59 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure allows permanent civil forfeiture of the vehicle itself in a felony case, which matters more than usual in a county with this much high-value vehicle ownership.

Jail and Bond

Everyone lands at the Kendall County Detention Facility on Staudt Street, a small facility that can bottleneck fast during a holiday "No Refusal" surge. The jail flatly refuses attorney bonds, wire transfers, and any card payment for bail — cash bonds have to be an exact-amount money order or cashier's check, with no change given for an overpayment. That creates a real trap on weekends: banks are closed, so a family with the cash to cover a $1,500 bond at 2 a.m. Saturday still can't actually post it, and ends up paying a bondsman's non-refundable premium anyway just to bridge the gap until Monday. The county also only accepts surety paperwork from a small, locally approved rotation of bondsmen — showing up with an out-of-county bondsman from San Antonio gets the paperwork rejected outright, adding more delay rather than less. Anyone arriving to process release paperwork should park only in marked visitor spaces; parking in a reserved law enforcement spot at the jail itself can get that vehicle impounded too.

Court

Misdemeanor DWI runs through the County Court at Law under Judge Shane Stolarczyk; felony cases go to the 451st District Court under Judge Kirsten B. Cohoon or the newly created 498th District Court under Judge Katherine McDaniel, a former prosecutor. Security at the courthouse is thorough enough that arriving 45 minutes early for a morning docket call is the standing advice. The dress code goes further than most: no shorts, tank tops, muscle shirts, or flip-flops, and — genuinely — no clothing depicting "grotesque creatures." A phone that rings during Judge Stolarczyk's docket call gets confiscated on the spot, and showing up in banned attire can mean denied entry, a failure-to-appear status, and a bench warrant before the hearing even starts.

There's no dedicated SOBER court in Kendall County; rehabilitation for qualifying defendants routes through standard pre-trial diversion or intensive outpatient programs instead. Pulling older case records from the District Clerk carries its own quirk — anything from before 2010 costs $5 per person plus another $5 per decade searched, and that fee can only be paid online through the state e-file system, in person, or by mailed money order.

The License Suspension Clock

A refused or failed test (0.08% or higher) means the officer confiscates the license and issues a DIC-25 temporary permit on the spot. There are exactly 15 calendar days to request an ALR hearing, and the resulting suspension, if the deadline is missed, can run anywhere from 180 days to two years depending on prior history and whether it was a refusal or a failed test. Filing through the DPS online portal or a fax with a timestamped confirmation is worth doing specifically because it's the only real proof of timely filing if DPS later claims the request never arrived. The local Boerne DPS office handles reinstatement paperwork and occupational license issuance, but only by appointment, with waits that can run weeks.

Compliance and Local Resources

Intoxalock runs five separate installation centers inside Boerne city limits, hosted out of local auto shops, which makes it the practical default for anyone on a restricted schedule. Smart Start, by contrast, has no location inside the county at all — the nearest options sit in Bulverde, Kerrville, or San Antonio, which is a real problem for anyone on an occupational license that only permits driving specific routes at specific hours; crossing into another jurisdiction just for a routine calibration appointment carries its own legal risk. SCRAM continuous monitoring has no dedicated local storefront either and generally coordinates through regional networks based in the San Antonio area.

For DWI education, evaluation, and outpatient treatment, a regional council based in nearby Kerrville serves as the designated provider for Kendall County, offering the state-mandated education courses, victim impact panels, and clinical assessments. A local outpatient counseling practice in Boerne offers an alternative for anyone who'd rather not make the Kerrville drive, and for more serious cases requiring residential care, a Hill Country inpatient treatment center provides medically monitored detox. Court-ordered psychiatric or mental health evaluations route through Hill Country MHDD Centers' Kendall County location in Boerne.

Sources

• Kendall County Sheriff's Office Bail Bond Information
• 451st District Court
• 498th District Court
• Texas DPS Administrative License Revocation Program
• Kendall County Sheriff's Office