Gazette Enterprise
June 16, 1987
Attorney testifies Feazell threatened him, partner
By Garth Jones
Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN (AP) – Veteran Waco attorney Don Hall testified that McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell threatened him and his law partner with state prosecution when he found out they were becoming federal witnesses.
Hall, a Waco attorney for 36 years and a former district attorney, is the last scheduled government witness in Feazell’s bribery trial.
Hall returned to the witness stand today as the trial of the 35-year-old prosecutor continued into its fourth week.
Both Hall and his partner, Dick Kettler, have testified that Feazell asked and got from them one third of all their legal fees in drunken driving cases where Feazell got cases dismissed or reduced.
Hall said Monday that shortly before he and Kettler declared they would testify for the U.S. government, Feazell threatened to get Attorney General Jim Mattox to file state charges against them.
“He told Kettler that we could still be prosecuted by the state,” Hall said, “and he would have his good friend Jim Mattox do it. He said government immunity would not extend to the state.
“I took it as a threat against the both of us,” Hall said.
Hall described earlier Monday how Feazell asked for a share of legal fees.
“He told me that he wanted to participate in our fees,” testified Hall, who was district attorney in 1963-66 and a former law partner of Feazell. “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. “I was astounded. I had never shared a fee with anyone nor had I taken one when I was in public office.”
Hall testified Feazell finally asked for one-third of the fees that Hall’s law firm received in cases where Feazell became involved in getting charges dismissed or reduced.
Hall said he and his partner, Dick Kettler, discussed Feazell’s demands.
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