SHERMAN — Fired Quitman police captain Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination case could go to a federal jury as soon as midweek.
At the conclusion of Friday’s court session before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III, Bevill’s lawyers said they have two witnesses yet to call, and will probably rest on Tuesday.
Defense counsel said they did not expect to call any witnesses, barring an unanticipated development, so Judge Mazzant said that closing arguments and final instructions to the eight-member jury could take place as soon as Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.
The trial began Sept. 9.
Bevill, a 19-year police veteran in East Texas, was fired in June of 2017 for 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, attached to what turned out to be an unsuccessful motion for a change of venue, 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, Wood County’s jail administrator, was charged with and later convicted of tampering with a government record to facilitate the escape of a jail inmate — a4r woman with whom, according to court records, McGee had a sexual relationship.
After he was fired, Bevill filed suit against Tom Castloo, the Wood County sheriff in 2017, Jeffrey Fletcher, then the district judge in Wood County, James Wheeler, then the county’s district attorney, and David Dobbs, then the mayor of Quitman.
Bevill has contended in court documents that Dobbs fired him because of pressure from Castloo, Fletcher and Wheeler. Lawyers for the defendants deny there was any conspiracy to oust Bevill.
Dobbs testified last week that he and he alone decided to fire Bevill, after consultation with the city secretary, the city attorney and outside counsel. The former mayor said Bevill violated a city policy prohibiting police officers from meddling in criminal cases in which neither the city nor the officers had any involvement.
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 in Dallas.
Dobbs is represented by Lance Vincent of Ritcheson, Laufer & Vincent in Tyler.
Castloo is represented by Robert Scott Davis of Flowers Davis in Tyler.
Wheeler is represented by Grant Blaies and James Hryekewicz, both of Blaise & Hightower in Fort Worth.
Fletcher is represented by Brianna Krominga and Will Wassdorf of the Texas attorney general’s office.
Previous coverage of the trial can be found here.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the employer of Brianna Michelle Krominga. She is an assistant Texas attorney general.