The Vidorian Shopper
August 9, 1988
Attorney Cites Own Ordeal
By Rick Young
Staff Writer
McClennan County Attorney Vic Feazell said Saturday that suspended Orange County Sheriff James Wade "cannot get a fair trial under Judge (Howell) Cobb. Every bit of evidence in James' favor will be ruled
'irrelevant' or will be overruled."
Feazell was speaking after having arrived unexpectedly at a benefit given by Vidor Citizens for Wade's wife Neva and their sons. The loss of Wade's salary since his suspension from office July 11 has, according to people close to the family, hurt them financially. Feazell, a family friend, said his own experiences with the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety "strangely parallel" those of James Wade.
"My own experience has one particularly significant parallel to his and that is that mine also began when I made Jim Davis mad," Feazell told about 150 people gathered for the auction and dance at the Vidor VFW hall Saturday. As McClennan County DA, Feazell questioned the handling of confessed serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who confessed to more than 200 murders throughout the nation.
Lucas was, Feazell said, transported about the state while being coached by the government about unsolved murders, which Lucas would then be credited for having committed. Feazell brought evidence to the Public about various agencies "dumping" unsolved cases. Shortly after making his revelations, Feazell was charged with bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud. After a six week trial he was found not guilty on the first ballot by the jury. Gar Richardson of Tulsa, Okla., and Jeff Kearney of Fort Worth. Wade's attorneys, handled Feazell's defense.
"I am pleased to be a free man today," Feazell opened his short speech to the group. "If the federal government had had its way, I would just now be finishing the first year of an 80 year prison sentence.
"I know what kind of pressure and trouble people face when they stand up and speak their minds," Feazell said. He referred in that and in his remark about making Davis mad to Wade's earlier troubles with his former employer, the DPS. Wade sued Davis former director of the state police agency, and his supervisor in 1984 over what Wade termed a "ticket quota" he alleged was imposed on highway patrolmen.
"I still believe in America," Feazell said, "but I think it is tragic when we see everyday that murderers, rapists and robbers are arrested and walk out immediately on bond, then we have a man like James Wade held in jail with no bond." Feazell said the no bond law under which Wade is being held was handled to handle drug dealers that were foreign nationals and had large amounts of money.
"Those people could walk in, put up $1 million bond and never be seen again," Feasell said.
"Then we have James Wade, a trusted elected official who doesn't even own a passport held in jail with no bond."
Feazell said the similarities between his own case and Wade's include a three-prong attack laid by the FBI, beginning with disinformation, which includes planted rumors, lies and innuendo, intimidation of both Wade and of witnesses in his favor, and isolation, which Feazell said included being held without bond. Feazell agreed that current Orange County jail policy, initiated by Newton Johnson, who was appointed to act as sheriff after Wade was suspended, which forbids legal investigators, attorneys and even Orange County detectives from having any contact with jail prisoners without Johnson's written permission is included in the isolation phase.
Two prisoners who gave statements to Richardson on Wade's behalf were interrogated by FBI agents for several hours last week after they spoke. Legal investigator Frank Miller Jr. said he has been denied access to prisoners by Johnson.
"Denial of access to potential witnesses by attorneys or legal investigators acting on behalf of attorneys is a denial of Wade's rights under the U. W. Constitution, the right to fair and legal representation," Feazell said.
"A judge who would deny those rights knows he government's case is weak. It's Nazi tactics."
Feazell said that when he was arrested, 15 agents came to his home and took him and his wife into custody and spent over four hours searching his home, a search that revealed nothing.
"They poured the cereal out of the boxes looking for something they could hang on me," Feazell said.
he warned that people attending the benefit could expect to have their vehicle license numbers recorded and "in a computer somewhere." He also said that when he was arrested, the media had been alerted beforehand and television crews were present, even though his indictment was sealed. Reporters had details on Wade's case a week before the information was released Jan. 29. The sources of those leaks in Beaumont and Orange have been verified and turned over to Wade's defense team.
Rumor Feazell said, was the key element in the government's efforts.
"Ninety percent of what you hear now will never be heard in Sherman," Feazell said, Because what is presently being spread has no basis in fact and cannot be introduced as evidence. He said the announcement by the government that an investigation was taking place was intentionally planned for six weeks before the election in order to hurt Wade's chances at the polls.
"The government follows these tactics because they know they do not have a case against James Wade," Feazell said. "The thing we - you people and all of us - need to do is get together and pull together, get those bumper stickers out there, show them that it is us, we the people, that run this country.
"Otherwise, there'll be nobody left when the government comes for us.
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