Federal Judge, Quoting Game of Thrones Author, Pours Out Posttrial Motions in Wrongful Firing Case of East Texas Police Captain

In a scathing order, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III has denied a slew of posttrial motions from public officials in East Texas who were found liable by a jury last year in the firing and arrest of a former Quitman police captain. Through his Aug. 11 order, Judge Mazzant in essence upheld a $21.3 million verdict on behalf of Terry Bevill, a career police officer who, jurors concluded, was targeted for signing an affidavit in 2017 saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County because of improperly close relationships between the county sheriff, the district attorney and the state district judge in Wood County. “When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world you fear what he might say,” the judge wrote, quoting George R.R. Martin, author of the Game of Thrones saga. “Bevill’s career in law enforcement,” Judge Mazzant wrote, “required him to take an oath to defend the United States Constitution. When he exercised his First Amendment rights under it — by calling out public corruption in his hometown — he lost his job and was thrown in jail. The cost of doing the right…