Morning News
June 16, 1987
Feazell demanded fees, lawyer says
By Garth Jones
Associated Press
AUSTIN – A former McLennan County chief prosecutor said Monday that he was astounded when present District Attorney Vic Feazell asked for a share of legal fees when he got drunken driving cases dismissed or reduced.
“He told me that he wanted to participate in our fees,” testified Don, Hall, who was district attorney form 1963 to 1966 and a former law partner of Feazell’s. “He said he had done us a lot of favors and we had made money as a result of those favors.”
“I asked him what he meant,” said Hall, who is the last scheduled government witness in the 3-week-old federal court bribery trial of Feazell, 35.
“He said he wanted a mathematical percentage of cases dismissed,” Hall said.
“I was astounded. I had never shared a fee with anyone nor had I taken one when I was in public office.”
Hall testified that Feazell finally asked for one-third of the fees that Hall’s law firm received in cases in which Feazell became involved in getting charges dismissed or reduced.
Hall said he and his partner Dick Kettler, discussed Feazell’s demands.
“He (Kettler) was astounded too,” Hall said Monday. “We never reached a conclusion on the matter. The next time a case came along, we just cut him (Feazell) out a third and gave it to him.”
Hall testified that shortly before he and Kettler became government witnesses, Feazell threatened them with state prosecution by Attorney General Jim Mattox.
“He (Feazell) told Kettler that we could still be prosecuted by the state and he would have his good fiend Jim Mattox do it,” Hall said. “He said the government immunity would not extend to the state.”
“I took that as a threat against both of us,” Hall testified.
Kettler testified for three days last week, telling of numerous instances in which he and Hall agree to give Feazell one-third of the fees in cases that Feazell “handled.”
Feazell is accused of taking $19,000 in bribes from a circle of Waco attorneys in exchange for dismissing charges against their clients. The 10-count federal racketeering indictment also charges him with mail fraud.
Feazell has said the charges are false and were initiated by the Department of Public Safety, which he said was seeking revenge because of Feazell’s investigation into the confessions made by Henry Lee Lucas, who said he was a serial murderer. Lucas later recanted many of the confessions, which had been used by local authorities to clear up unsolved murders.
Back
