Tribune-Herald
June 12, 1987
Defense cross-examines Kettler on Feazell tape
The witness admits he never paid the district attorney money to influence a case.
By Tommy Witherspoon
Tribune-Herald staff writer
AUSTIN – One of Waco attorney Dick Kettler ‘s main objectives after agreeing to cooperate with the government in its investigation of Vic Feazell was to get the McLennan County district attorney to admit on tape that he accepted bribes from defense attorneys, Kettler said Thursday.
Kettler spent his second day on the witness stand under eight hours of cross-examination from Feazell’s attorney, Gary Richardson, as Feazell’s federal trial on racketeering and mail fraud charges concluded its third week.
U.S. District Judge James Nowlin has recessed the trial until Monday morning.
Richardson spent much of Thursday asking Kettler about events that led to his secretly taping a conversation between himself and Feazell on Sept. 12, 1986. The tape, which was played for the jury on Wednesday, was practically unintelligible, and Richardson argued that its contents and the context of the conversation are subject to debate.
But as he said Wednesday, Kettler told Richardson that the tape is clear to him that he and Feazell were talking about illegal cash payments that Kettler’s partner, Don Hall, made to Feazell in exchange for preferential treatment for their clients.
Richardson, as he did with Waco attorneys Dick Clark and Ron Moody, tried to paint Kettler as an attorney who accepted cash payments from clients, did not report those payments on his taxes and struck a deal with the government for leniency from prosecution for his testimony against Feazell.
Kettler, who said he and Hall have filed amended tax returns since the investigation began, admitted that he never paid Feazell to influence a case. But he said Hall, through an arrangement with Feazell, made illegal payments to the 36-year-old district attorney from May 1984 to April 1985.
Under questioning from Richardson, Kettler said Hall often left clients and others with the impression that he had “an inside track” with Feazell, who shared offices with Hall and Kettler before assuming office in 1983.
“Not one time during all your conversations was there ever any discussions about Vic Feazell taking bribes, was there?” Richardson asked Kettler.
“No sir, except on that Sept 12 tape.”
“All you have to support allegations of bribes is what Don Hall told you, right?” Richardson asked.
“That and what the tape says,” Kettler said.
“Did it ever occur to you that Don Hall was not telling you the truth about his conversations with Vic and kept that money as a way to make some money on his own?”
“It occurred to me, sir, but it only occurred to me that that’s how you would explain it to this jury,” Kettler said.
Richardson asked Kettler if Feazell ever told him to lie about anything or to obstruct justice.
“He told me to act like nothing had happened, so yes, sir, he did tell me to lie. I think you could construe it from that tape.”
Kettler, who testified Wednesday that he has an “open-ended” agreement with the government concerning his tax violations, denied that the disposition of his case was contingent on the effectiveness of his testimony against Feazell.
In a tentative and unofficial arrangement with the government, Kettler agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of tax evasion, but said Thursday that his Dallas attorney has told federal prosecutors that he will not plead guilty to a felony.
“The most you will have to plead guilty to is one count of felony tax evasion,” Richardson said. “The best that can happen, if your scorecard is good enough, is you won’t have to plead guilty to anything. That’s what you are hoping for, isn’t it?”
“That’s exactly what I am hopping for,” Kettler said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Frels asked Kettler if his attorney still negotiating with federal prosecutors concerning his case and if he know what the outcome of his case will be.
“It may leave me in a real bad position,” Kettler told Frels.
Kettler testified Wednesday that Feazell told him and Hall that hey weren’t charging their clients enough for getting their cases dismissed and told Hall that he wanted “a piece of the action” in May 1984.
He and Hall began splitting fees with Feazell from clients whose cases Feazell would handle personally, Kettler testified.
Hall will be the government’s first and final witness on Monday, Frels said.
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