SHERMAN — Two of the four defendants in a federal wrongful-termination suit by former Quitman police captain Terry Bevill testified Thursday that there was no conspiracy to fire him for trying to help a friend win a change of venue.
The other two are expected to testify in the jury trial of Bevill’s suit before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III. The trial, entering its fifth day Friday, is expected to take about two weeks.
On Thursday, David Dobbs, the former mayor of Quitman, said repeatedly from the stand that it was his decision alone to fire Bevill in 2017 after the 19-year police veteran signed an affidavit saying he didn’t think his friend who faced a felony charge could get a fair trial in Wood County, of which Quitman is the seat.
Dobbs denied the allegation in Bevill’s suit that Bevill was fired because of pressure from three of the most powerful law enforcement officials in the East Texas county: its sheriff, its district attorney and its state district judge. Bevill’s June 2, 2017, affidavit, attached to a motion for a change of venue filed in behalf of his friend, said a fair trial was impossible in part because of the improperly close relationships between those three. (The motion was later denied.)
And Jim Wheeler, the Wood County DA at the time, testified that he had nothing to do with Bevill’s firing or his subsequent arrest on a warrant accusing him of aggravated perjury — an arrest that Bevill, now 64, contends killed his career in law enforcement.
“I didn’t think he should have been fired,” Wheeler testified, adding, “This whole circumstance should not have happened.”
Dobbs said Bevill was fired because by signing his affidavit — in which he identified himself as Quitman’s police captain, the police department’s second in command — Bevill violated a Quitman police policy that said in part, “Members of the Department shall not take part or be concerned, either directly or indirectly, in making or negotiating any compromise or arrangement for any criminal or person to escape the penalty of law. Employees shall not seek to obtain any continuance of any trial in court out of friendship for the defendant, or otherwise interfere with the courts of justice.”
Dobbs testified that a meeting with Wheeler three days after Bevill’s affidavit was filed, in which the visibly angry DA said he wasn’t sure he could prosecute further criminal cases brought by Quitman police, “had no bearing” on Dobbs’ decision to fire Bevill.
Bevill’s friend, David McGee, then the Wood County jail administrator, was charged with and later convicted of tampering with a government record to facilitate the escape of a county jail inmate — 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. …”
In addition to Dobbs and Wheeler, the individual defendants in Bevill’s suit are Tom Castloo, the Wood County sheriff in 2017, and Jeffrey Fletcher, then the state district judge in the county. Both are listed in court documents as witnesses Bevill’s lawyers plan to call to the stand.
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 Blaies and James Hryekewicz of Blaies & Hightower in Fort Worth, and former Judge Fletcher is represented by Brianna Michelle Krominga and Will Wassdorf of the Texas attorney general’s office.
Wheeler, while saying he knew nothing of any plot to punish Bevill, testified that he had suspicions about what he perceived as an uncomfortably cozy relationship between Sheriff Castloo and Judge Fletcher. He also acknowledged complaining in writing that the judge had improperly contacted at least one assistant prosecutor in Wheeler’s office to share his views on how a pending case before Fletcher ought to be handled.
Wheeler added that he disagreed with Fletcher’s decision to issue a warrant for Bevill’s arrest at the conclusion of McGee’s trial. The warrant accused Bevill of aggravated perjury because of his affidavit, which the judge characterized as a “lie, pure and simple.”
The criminal case against Bevill dissolved when a grand jury refused 16 months later to indict him. By then, his lawsuit contends, “he was unable to work in any law enforcement capacity.”
Wheeler, now a lawyer in private practice in Smith County, testified that he submitted his resignation as Wood County district attorney in October 2018.
What the eight-member jury in Judge Mazzant’s court was not told was that Wheeler’s resignation followed an investigation by the Texas Rangers into an accusation that he had sexually harassed an assistant attorney in his office for six months. That assistant, Angela Albers, is now the Wood County DA.
Fletcher left the bench in 2020. He was publicly reprimanded by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct in 2021 in a matter unrelated to Bevill’s case and was an unsuccessful candidate earlier this year in the Republican primary for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. He is now in private practice in Mineola.
Castloo lost the Republican primary race for Wood County sheriff in 2020 by a wide margin to Kelly Cole, who was the Quitman police chief when Dobbs fired Bevill.
Dobbs, while no longer mayor, remains a member of the Quitman City Council.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the employer of Brianna Michelle Krominga. She is an assistant Texas attorney general.