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Uhland mayor arrested, accused of misusing $250K in funds
Texas Rangers arrested Uhland Mayor Lacee Duke, alleging she misused $250,000 in city funds tied to Old Town Uhland; she was released on bond.
Published December 4, 2025 at 9:03pm by Dante Motley
The Texas Department of Public Safety emblem is displayed on the uniform of Director Steve McCraw.
SARA DIGGINS/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The mayor of Uhland, a small city south of Austin, was arrested by the Texas Rangers on Wednesday afternoon for allegedly misusing a quarter of a million in city funds, according to city officials.
Lacee Duke was charged with the misapplication of fiduciary property between $150,000 and $300,000, according to Caldwell County District Attorney Fred Weber. Duke was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly improperly disbursed $250,000 to Old Town Uhland, LLC in connection with the 2024 Uhland Fall Fest.
Duke championed the Uhland Fall Fest as the flagship attraction in the city’s most ambitious development push to date. Last June, she led the approval of a $1.5 million Chapter 380 incentives deal that cleared the way for festival founder Christopher Durst to relocate his fast-growing Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival to Uhland and begin building Old Town Uhland, a 97-acre Old West–themed destination planned for a historic dairy farm.
Under the agreement, the city’s economic development corporation purchased the former dairy farm for $2 million and leased it to Durst, allowing construction of Old Town Uhland to accelerate toward a 2027 completion.
An official statement by the city released by Councilwoman Keshia Rollins-Contreras said that officials "are closely monitoring the situation."
"The City respects the legal process and the presumption of innocence guaranteed to every individual," the statement read. "At this time, Mayor Duke continues to serve in office unless and until any action is taken in accordance with Texas law. The City will provide updates to the public if additional information becomes available and can be released."
Duke was being held on a $20,000 bond at Caldwell County jail, but she has since been released, a jail employee said. If she is found guilty, the second degree felony carries between two and 20 years in prison.
Dec 4, 2025