Tribune-Herald
June 14, 1987
Feazell “sorry” for ex-partner
By Tommy Witherspoon
Tribune-Herald staff writer
AUSTIN - McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell said he was reminded of Judas and “Hitler youth” while he watched his former friend and law associate Dick Kettler testify against him last week in an Austin federal courtroom.
But in the next breath, he said he feels sorry for Kettler and bears him son animosity.
Kettler, a Waco attorney who shared a law office with Feazell before he was elected in 1982, spent an emotional 2 ½ days on the witness stand last week testifying in Feazell’s federal racketeering and mail fraud trial.
Kettler said he testified against Feazell because he was “tired of living a lie and couldn’t stand it any longer.” After court recessed Thursday for the weekend, Kettler said his time in the witness chair was easy compared to the internal tug of war he endured before deciding to cooperate with government prosecutors in July 1986.
Kettler, 42, was the government’s 62nd witness in the trial, which enters its fourth week Monday. U.S. Attorney Jack Frels said Kettler’s law partner, Don Hall, will be his final witness. The former McLennan County district attorney is expected to be on the stand for at least two days, Frels said, and Feazell probably will begin his defense Wednesday.
“Testifying was one of the easiest times I have spent lately,” Kettler said last week. “When you tell the truth, it is easy.”
But Feazell and his attorney, Gary Richardson, have said the government would have no case were it not for four Waco attorneys whose tax problems were uncovered during the Feazell investigations and who will testify against Feazell in exchange for immunity or partial immunity for tax violations.
“The past two days remind me of what I have read and seen about the Hitler youth turning in their parents to get their cards punched with the Nazis,” Feazell said of Kettler’s testimony. “At least Judas had the guts to hang himself.
“I feel sorry for him. I can understand it, though. I wouldn’t do it, but that is the reason I am in trouble now, I have always tried to do what is right regardless of who it makes mad.
“But I have been kicked in the teeth so much that I no longer feel any real animosity or anger toward anybody,” Feazell said.
Kettler testified Tuesday that in May 1984, Feazell told Hall he wanted a “piece of the action” in exchange for Feazell’s influence over their clients’ cases. He and Hall increased their legal fees after Feazell told them they were not charging enough, then split the cash fees Feazell from May 198f4 to April 1985, Kettler said.
Hall made all illegal payments to Feazell, Kettler testified. He never saw Hall give the district attorney any money, but the attorney talked about how much they would give him in each case.
Kettler’s fate is being negotiated by his attorney and federal prosecutors. Kettler said Thursday he has no intention of pleading guilty to a felony, which is what his initial arrangement with the government indicated.
“I just don’t know what is going to happen to me,” Kettler said.
Waco attorney Dick Clark was granted total immunity from prosecution on tax evasion charges. Waco law partners Ken Crow and Ron Moody pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax evasion but have not been sentenced.
Clark and Moody testified they made large cash campaign contributions to Feazell that were not reported. Crow did not testify.
Richardson said he expects to call 40-60 witnesses in Feazell’s defense, but declined to name them last week for fear “of giving away our case.” Defense testimony should last about 1 ½ weeks, he said.
Frels described Feazell’s defense so far as a “smorgasbord defense.”
“They are blaming his problems on everybody,” Frels said. “It is everybody’s fault but Vic Feazell’s. But that is very typical in this type of case. It is a standard defense in any official misconduct and public corruption type case.”
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