Tribune-Herald
Agent: Reporter sought negative Attempt ‘to discredit’ Feazell cited
By Tommy Witherspoon
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Former Dallas television reporter Charles Duncan sought only negative information about Vic Feazell during a 1985 interview with Waco police drug agents, one of the agents testified Monday.
Dean Priddy, a former sergeant in the Drug Enforcement Unit, said that Duncan appeared to be “out to do what he could to discredit” Feazell, the former McLennan County district attorney.
Feazell claims that Duncan, a former WFAA-TV reporter, libeled him with his 10-part series that aired on Channel 8 from June to August 1985. He is seeking $52 million in damages from Duncan and the Belo Broadcasting Co., which owns Channel 8 in Dallas.
Priddy, who is now a McLennan County Sheriff’s Department jailer, joined his former DEU colleague Donnie Tidmore and a state investigator in disputing Duncan’s testimony that they were the source for much of the information in the series that Duncan attributed to them.
Tidmore, who began his testimony Thursday, left the stand early Monday afternoon after a brief cross-examination from Belo attorney Tom Leatherbury.
Feazell’s attorney, Gary Richardson, asked both Priddy and Tidmore about an element of Duncan’s episode six that said: “Waco police say they’re doing something about soft prosecution of tough drug cases in their city. Police are bypassing McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell, taking their drug cases instead to federal court.”
Both officers said that if Duncan tried to imply that Waco police officers took all their major drug cases to federal prosecutors, that was not an accurate picture to leave with viewers. Both agreed with Richardson’s figures that DEU officers took perhaps 15 to 20 drug cases through the federal system in 1984 and 1985, out of about 500 to 600 cases.
Priddy said neither he nor Tidmore told Duncan that they took all their cases to federal court in early 1985 after becoming concerned with “lax prosecution,” as Duncan seemed to imply in his broadcast.
Priddy also denied telling Duncan that “police undercover agents say word is out that it’s easy to deal in drugs and stay out of jail in McLennan County. And they say drug dealers from throughout the country are taking advantage of the opportunities,” as Duncan reported in episode six.
Duncan, whose testimony lasted 10 days, testified that Priddy and Tidmore were his sources for that information.
“No, I didn’t tell him that because I would be saying that I didn’t do my job,” Priddy said.
Both officers said they had concerns about specific cases that were not prosecuted but added that it was more a difference of opinion with various prosecutors or judges about individual cases.
While drug activity increase dramatically in the mid-1980s in McLennan County, it was no worse than any other area of Texas, Priddy said.
During cross-examination from Belo attorney John McElhaney, Priddy said quotes from former Waco Police Chief Larry Scott that appeared in the broadcasts backed up much of the information in Duncan’s episode 6. However, Priddy reiterated that information Duncan said he got from him that did not appear in the segment was quoted erroneously or taken out of context.
The trial, which could last two more weeks, enters its 15th day when testimony resumes this morning in Waco’s 19th State District Court.
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