Bruce Tomaso

Bruce Tomaso spent more than 30 years as a writer and editor at The Dallas Morning News. When asked what positions he held there, he usually says it’s easier to list those he didn’t.

As enterprise editor on The News’s breaking news desk in the summer of 2016, he played a key role in covering the downtown shooting spree that left five police officers dead. For its coverage, The News was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting.

He spent most of 1997 in Denver covering the federal criminal trials of Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Four years later, he covered McVeigh’s execution.

His first major reporting assignment for The Texas Lawbook was a retrospective on the 20th anniversary of the $119.6 million verdict for 10 young men who’d been molested as children by Rudy Kos, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. The stories earned Bruce and his Lawbook editor, Allen Pusey, the Dallas Bar Association’s 2018 Stephen Philbin Award for Feature Writing.

In 2019, he covered the seven-week medical fraud trial of nine physicians, healthcare executives and others associated with Forest Park Medical Center, a now-defunct Dallas surgical hospital.

He’s a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He and his wife, Dallas attorney Patricia A. Nolan, have one grown son, who is smarter than either of them.

He will drop everything, including preposterous sums of money, to see Lady Gaga, Notre Dame football, or the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

You can reach Bruce at bruce.tomaso@texaslawbook.net.

Trial in American Airlines’ Suit Against Company Promoting ‘Hidden City’ Fares Begins Monday

The carrier says the practice known as ‘skiplagging’ — booking a flight with a layover, then abandoning the second leg of the flight — violates airline policies and leaves travelers at risk of having their tickets declared invalid.

October 4, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Police Captain Gets $21.35M in Wrongful Termination Trial

A federal jury in Sherman on Thursday awarded $21.35 million in damages to a former Quitman police captain who was fired then arrested for signing an affidavit in 2017 saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County because of an improperly close relationship between the county sheriff, the district attorney and the state district judge assigned to Wood County.

September 19, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

‘How Could This Possibly Happen in the United States?’ Lawyer for Fired Quitman Police Captain Asks

In closing arguments, Laura Benitez Geisler of Dallas, the lawyer for Terry Bevill, tells a federal jury he deserves at least $33 million because he was wrongfully fired and arrested for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. The jury enters its second day of deliberations Thursday morning.

September 18, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Quitman Police Captain’s Suit Headed to Jury

After six days of testimony, closing arguments in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination lawsuit are scheduled for Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of Sherman.

September 18, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Ex-Judge Says He Ordered Quitman Police Captain’s Arrest Over ‘Total Pile of Crap’ Affidavit

Jeff Fletcher, Wood County’s former state district judge, joins fellow defendants in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination suit in denying there was any conspiracy to punish Bevill for saying in 2017 that a friend couldn’t get a fair trial in the East Texas county.

September 17, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Jury Could Begin Deliberations in Fired Police Captain’s Case as Early as Midweek

Fired Quitman police captain Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination case in Sherman 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.

September 16, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Two Defendants Deny Plot to Fire Quitman Police Captain

The other two defendants in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination suit are listed as potential witnesses in the ongoing jury trial before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III in Sherman.

September 12, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Quitman Police Captain Didn’t Deserve to be Fired, His Former Chief Testifies

Had it been up to him, Ex-Chief Kelly Cole said, his second-in-command “probably would have gotten couple of days off” for violating policy by signing an affidavit stating that he didn’t think his friend could get a fair trial in Wood County.

September 11, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Quitman Police Captain Was Not the Victim of a Conspiracy, Lawyers for Defendants in His Federal Suit Say

Terry Bevill, the fired officer, testifies that he was nearly ruined in the seven years since he signed an affidavit saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County. Defense counsel say he was terminated not out of retribution, but because he violated Quitman city policies.

September 10, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

After 7 Years, Fired Quitman Police Captain Will Have His Day in Federal Court

When Terry Bevill signed an affidavit in 2017 saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County in East Texas, he didn’t know he was signing the death certificate for his law enforcement career.

On Monday, a federal jury will determine if Bevill was wrongly fired.

September 6, 2024 Bruce Tomaso