Special prosecutor appointed to lead criminal investigation into Judge Bill Gravell

Posted: Jun 12, 2020

Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell faces a list of criminal allegations after he was spotted at a family member’s birthday party during a countywide lock down in April.

BACKGROUND

Criminal complaint filed against Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell after stay-at-home order violation

It took Dee Hobbs, the county’s elected attorney, several weeks to request a recusal in the case after Hobbs’ office received the criminal complaint against Gravell in April.

In an order signed this week, Bexar County District Judge David Peeples sent the Gravell case to Milam County District Attorney Bill Torrey for investigation and prosecution.

It took nearly 60 days for a criminal complaint filed against the man who holds Williamson County’s highest office to make its way to a special prosecutor.

A few weeks ago, Hobbs’ general counsel, Jason Nassour, told KXAN that Hobbs still had not decided whether to asked for a recusal in the case at that time. Hobbs’ office would’ve had to investigate and handle the prosecution in the case.

Hobbs’ office provided legal counsel to Gravell in writing the county’s stay at home order, which Gravell is accused of violating in the criminal complaint.

Nassour said that could have created a conflict of interest. Hobbs’ office also represents the county commissioners court in legal matters. Hobbs’ office also handles legal wrangling related to public information requests for Gravell.

Weeks ago, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht got the Gravell complaint after multiple judges recused themselves from involvement in the investigation.

Georgetown attorney Robert McCabe filed the complaint on April 13. The complaint accused Gravell of violating his own stay-at-home order — a misdemeanor — and of official oppression and abuse of official capacity.

The Buddy Falcon account posted the pictures of Judge Bill Gravell at 2:52 p.m. on April 7, 2020.

A Twitter account belonging to “Buddy Falcon” posted the pictures of Judge Bill Gravell at 2:52 p.m. on April 7.

The tweet claimed Gravell was attending a family member’s birthday party that morning.

Photographs of Gravell and his wife appeared on the “Buddy Falcon” account within hours of the party. Gravell was wearing a fireman’s bunker gear and breathing equipment he borrowed from the county’s fire department in Jarrell.

The photographs show Gravell standing outside his pickup truck wearing the publicly owned fire equipment. Chief Mark McAdams told KXAN Gravell wanted the fire equipment in order to protect his grandson from potential exposure to the coronavirus during the judge’s visit to the party.

Gravell’s wife, who is standing beside him in the photographs, is not wearing any protective equipment.

At the time, anyone who lived in — or visited — Williamson County was banned from visits such as this, according to the order Gravell extended the day he attended the birthday party.

The Gravell order included a $1,000 fine or up to 180 days in jail for violating the order.

The complaint accused Gravell of using the power of his office to borrow the fire gear to attend the party. The chief told KXAN he would not have allowed any member of the public to use the department’s fire equipment for personal use but admitted to allowing Gravell to do so.

A move the chief  later regretted.

In the weeks after McCabe filed the complaint, Hobbs was trying to decide whether to assign the complaint to another county district attorney’s office or to investigate the complaint himself, according to Nassour, an Austin attorney who works as Hobbs general counsel.

Sometime after May 1, Hobbs sent the complaint to Williamson County District Judge Stacey Mathews to have Mathews assign a special prosecutor to the case, according to Nassour. Hobbs had not recused himself at the time, Nassour told KXAN.

Mathews later recused herself from any involvement in the case and forwarded the Gravell complaint to an administrative judge who oversees Mathews’ judicial district. Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, the presiding judge of Texas’ Third Judicial Region, later recused himself in the Gravell matter and sent the criminal complaint to the Texas Supreme Court.

Williamson Co. District Court Judge Stacey Mathews recused herself from assigning the Gravell complaint to a special prosecutor (Photo Credit: Williamson County)

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht got the complaint from Mathews and sent the complaint to Judge Peeples on June 1. Peeples’ job was to assign a special prosecutor to have the case investigated.

The special prosecutor will determine whether Gravell will face charges after the investigation is finished.

The criminal complaint also alleges a Williamson County deputy drove Gravell to the fire station, then to the birthday party on April 7.

Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody would not answer questions regarding whether the deputy was on duty at the time, whether that deputy was being investigated or what purpose a deputy would be assigned to escort Gravell.

“The sheriff’s department determines what Law Enforcement services are necessary and when they are necessary,” Chody wrote in an April 13 email. “I will not respond on matters of security involving anybody as a matter of protocol.”

Chody, who is often criticized by the “Buddy Falcon” Twitter account, took issue with a the reporting related to an interview with the person running the Twitter account and the use of the pictures of Gravell posted by the account, “Lastly Mr. Barr, let’s be fair. Please consider your sources more responsibly in the future as each have and have had an agenda for sometime [sic],” Chody wrote in an email.

When asked if Chody found any inaccuracies in the reporting or from the “Buddy Falcon” account, the sheriff could not provide an example of any inaccuracies. ”If you want to know what’s inaccurate in your story. Contact the County Attorney or District Attorney to determine and ask if an actual violation of the order occurred or if any law was broken as your story states.”

THE GRAVELL CALL

The pictures of Gravell at the birthday party were posted to Twitter at 2:52 p.m. on April 7. An hour and 10 minutes later, Gravell sent the Buddy Falcon account a message, asking the unnamed account owner to take the pictures down.

“That is a picture of my daughter’s home and my grandson. Please remove it from your page. You can come after me but this picture is out of line!” Gravell wrote in the message. The message was provided to KXAN by the account’s owner who asked that we conceal their identity.

At 3:32 p.m., McCabe posted a reply to the Buddy Falcon tweet, accusing Gravell of abusing his power by using taxpayer-owned equipment to attend the birthday party. Just 22 minutes later, Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick called McCabe, telling him Gravell was on the line demanding to speak with him and that it was “an emergency.”

The emergency, according to McCabe, was Gravell’s demands to remove the tweets from the Buddy Falcon account, “The emergency was that Bill Gravell needed to reach me about was these Twitter photos,” McCabe said. The three spent a few minutes on the phone, according to McCabe, and in the call Gravell asked McCabe to have the photographs removed from the Buddy Falcon social media accounts.

Gravell, Shawn Dick and Robert McCabe were in a three-way call on April 7, just minutes after a Twitter post showed Gravell at a birthday party (Twitter: Buddy Falcon)

“I think he believed that I had some influence over the Buddy Falcon account or whoever those people are that run those accounts and that I could have them taken down. And I immediately made it clear that I have no control over those photographs. I did not take the photographs and that I would do nothing to help them,” McCabe said.

McCabe said someone told him that Gravell originally planned to have firefighters from the Jarrell Fire Station drive by his grandson’s house at 11 a.m. with Gravell on the back of one of the trucks dressed as a fireman.

McCabe said he planned to have someone go by to photograph Gravell because McCabe believed the county judge was about to commit a crime.

Plans to use the fire trucks did not go through, according to Chief McAdams. McCabe said McAdams did nothing wrong and was put into a “tough position” by his boss, Judge Gravell.

McCabe said Gravell admitted to “criminal conduct” in the call. That position was supported by Dick’s decision to immediately recuse himself from the case, saying he couldn’t discuss the details of the case because he’s now “A potential witness in this conduct” after the April 7 phone call.

Dick said he also filed a criminal referral with Williamson County Attorney Dee Hobbs detailing Gravell’s actions following the phone call.

Judge Gravell has never responded to KXAN emails, messages and phone calls sent to his office and to his social media accounts.