SHERMAN — The No. 2 cop in Quitman, Texas, never should have been fired for saying under oath that he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County in East Texas, the former Quitman police chief testified Wednesday.
Had it been up to him, Kelly Cole testified, his second-in-command “probably would have gotten couple of days off.”
Cole said Terry Bevill violated city policy by signing an affidavit — in which he identified himself as Quitman’s police captain — in support of a friend’s unsuccessful motion for a change of venue out of Wood County, of which Quitman is the seat. In the affidavit, Bevill said he didn’t believe his friend could get a fair trial in Wood County, in part because of the close “personal relationships” between the county’s sheriff, district attorney and state district judge.
Bevill’s friend, David McGee, was charged with and later convicted of tampering with a government record to facilitate the escape of a county jail inmate — a woman charged with driving while intoxicated with a child passenger, a woman with whom, according to court records, McGee had had a sexual relationship.
At McGee’s request, according to testimony, Bevill signed an affidavit in support of McGee’s motion for a change of venue to neighboring Rains County. The affidavit, drafted by McGee’s criminal defense lawyer, said, “It is not possible for David McGee to obtain a fair and impartial trial in Wood County, Texas, because there is a dangerous combination against Defendant instigated by influential persons. …”
Cole’s testimony came on the third day of a jury trial before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III on a wrongful termination suit filed in 2019 by Bevill. The suit contends that Bevill “became the target of retaliation and punishment” for speaking out in 2017 against Tom Castloo, then the Wood County sheriff, Jeffrey Fletcher, then the district judge in Wood County, and James Wheeler, then the county’s district attorney.
A fourth individual defendant in the suit is David Dobbs, the Quitman mayor in 2017 who ordered Bevill’s termination. Bevill has contended in court documents that Dobbs fired him because of pressure from Castloo, Fletcher and Wheeler. Quitman and Wood County are also defendants.
Lawyers for the defendants deny there was any conspiracy to oust Bevill.
Dobbs, the former mayor, testified Wednesday that the decision to fire Bevill was his and his alone after consultation with the city secretary, the city attorney and outside counsel.
Dobbs was still on the stand when the trial was adjourned Wednesday and is to resume his testimony on Thursday.
Bevill’s lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. He is represented by Sean McCaffity, Laura Benitez Geisler, Jody Leigh Rodenberg and Rebecca Neumann, all with Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler of Dallas.
Dobbs and Quitman are represented by Lance Vincent and Douglas Alan Ritcheson, both of Ritcheson, Laufer & Vincent of Tyler. Castloo, the former sheriff, and Wood County are represented by Robert Scott Davis and Robin Hill O’Donoghue of Flowers Davis of Tyler. Wheeler, the former Wood County DA, is represented by Grant David Blaies of Fort Worth, and former Judge Fletcher is represented by Brianna Michelle Krominga and Will Wassdorf of the Texas attorney general’s office.
Signing the affidavit for McGee – which Bevill did without informing his police chief or any other Quitman city official – was, at best, inadvisable, Cole suggested in his testimony. But not something that should have cost Bevill, a 19-year police veteran with a spotless record, his job — and certainly not something that should have gotten Bevill arrested on a warrant accusing him of a felony.
He added that Bevill’s firing did not follow his department’s “well-established procedure” for investigating the conduct of police officers only after a written, formal complaint was lodged against the officer in question.
“I never saw an official complaint,” the former chief testified, adding, “I’m not quite sure what kind of fishing expedition they were on,” referring to Quitman’s mayor, city attorney and city secretary, who instructed him to place Bevill on administrative leave days after they learned of Bevill’s affidavit.
After McGee’s motion for a change of venue was denied, he was convicted in a two-day trial in Wood County and sentenced to two years in prison. At the conclusion of McGee’s trial, Fletcher, who presided over the criminal case, announced that he was issuing a warrant for Bevill’s arrest, alleging that the police captain had committed aggravated perjury, a felony. The judge called Bevill’s affidavit a “lie, pure and simple.”
The criminal case against Bevill dissolved when a grand jury refused to indict him, but that didn’t occur for 16 months. By then, his lawsuit contends, “he was unable to work in any law enforcement capacity.”
Cole, now the Wood County sheriff after defeating Castloo by a wide margin in 2020, testified that he’d known Bevill for many years and had worked with him on numerous investigations, including dangerous undercover operations.
“I trusted my life in his hands. … He’s a good man. I’ve always had faith in him.”
He said he first saw Bevill’s affidavit on June 8, 2017, six days after it had been filed in Fletcher’s court, when he was summoned to a meeting with Dobbs and other city officials.
When he was instructed to place Bevill on paid administrative leave pending completion of an investigation, Cole testified, he asked who had filed a formal complaint against Bevill, which he said was always a prelude to launching an investigation of a police officer during his 12 years as chief.
The police complaint form, available on the city’s website, said in part: “The following form must be filled in completely before any action will be taken on your complaint.” In addition to the complainant’s name, the nature of the complaint and the action requested against the subject officer, the form specified that a copy of the form would be provided to that officer.
But not in Bevill’s case.
Cole testified when he asked the city officials for the written complaint at that June 8 meeting, “I didn’t get anything.” Bevill was placed on leave that same day and was fired June 21.
Days before he was called to the meeting with Dobbs, Cole said, he’d gotten wind from the city attorney that Bevill was under scrutiny for something. He confronted Bevill in his office at the police station and asked his second-in-command “what the blank was going on.”
Under cross-examination, Cole acknowledged that it was within the mayor’s authority to order Bevill’s firing and that different people could reasonably disagree about what penalty was appropriate in Bevill’s case.
When Bevill told him about the affidavit, Cole testified, he asked why his friend hadn’t let him know of his plan in advance. Bevill told the chief “he didn’t want me to be involved” and added that he thought the chief would try to talk him out of it, Cole testified.
Bevill was right about that.
According to a June 21 memorandum summarizing the results of an independent outside investigation commissioned by the city and led by Tyler attorney Blake Armstrong, “Chief Cole stated that he would have advised Captain Bevill not to execute the affidavit. He understood that Captain Bevill’s testimony may very well create a difficult situation for the Police Department and its interaction with the District Attorney’s office.” The chief also expressed concern, according to the memorandum, that Bevill “may be treated unfairly by the District Attorney’s office, given his testimony.”
When, at the conclusion of McGee’s trial, Fletcher issued a warrant for Bevill’s arrest, “it was mind-boggling to me. I couldn’t understand what was going on.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the employer of Brianna Michelle Krominga. She is an assistant Texas attorney general.