The Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals refused this week to end a lawsuit filed by a former Quitman police captain who contends he was fired for supporting a motion for change of venue by a friend accused of letting a jail inmate escape.
A three-judge panel on Thursday affirmed a lower court decision denying motions for summary judgment filed against Terry Bevill by the former Wood County District Attorney James Wheeler, former 402nd District Court Judge Jeff Fletcher, former Wood County Sheriff Thomas Castloo and former Quitman Mayor David Dobbs.
The former officials unsuccessfully sought dismissal of Bevill’s suit, which claims he was wrongly fired for writing an affidavit saying a friend, jailer David McGee, accused of facilitating the escape of a jail inmate, could not receive a fair trial because of the close friendship among Wheeler, Fetcher and Castloo.
Bevill’s suit is pending before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III in Sherman.
The suit claims the public officials conspired to maliciously retaliate against Bevill and violated his constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments because his affidavit made them look bad.
“After exercising his First Amendment right to speak freely on a matter of public concern, Terry Bevill became the target of a vindictive campaign of retaliation and punishment because the subject of his protected speech involved prominent local officials,” lawyer Laura Benitez Geisler of Dallas, who represents Bevill, stated in the lawsuit.
In addition to Fletcher, Castloo, Wheeler and Dobbs, the complaint also names the City of Quitman and Wood County as defendants.
“Unfortunately, officials from Quitman and Wood County made sure Bevill paid a high price for exercising his right to ‘free’ speech,” the complaint said.
In an earlier appeal, the Fifth Circuit Court held that “Bevill suffered a violation of his clearly established constitutional rights.”
The former police captain is represented by, in addition to Geisler, Jody Leigh Rodenberg, Rebecca Neumann, and Sean Joseph McCaffity of Dallas.
Former mayor Dobbs is represented by Lance Vincent and Douglas Alan Ritcheson of Tyler. Castloo, the former sheriff, is represented by Robert Scott Davis and Robin Hill O’Donoghue of Tyler. Wheeler, the former Wood County DA, is represented by Grant David Blaies of Fort Worth and Judge Fletcher is represented by the Texas attorney general’s office.