News-Herald
June 10, 1987
Feazell said to have asked ‘piece of action’
By Liz Galtney
AUSTIN (UPI) – In return for dismissing criminal charges against clients, McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell told a former law associate he wanted “a piece of the action,” a Waco attorney testified in federal court.
Dick Kettler testified Tuesday that his law partner. Don Hall met with Feazell in 1984 to discuss dismissals of drug and drunken driving cases. Kettler said Hall “told me that Vic wanted a piece of the action” in exchange for dismissals.
“I understood what that meant,” Kettler told a federal court jury hearing Feazell’s mail fraud, racketeering and bribery trial. “(Feazell) wanted part of the money. That was what it was going to take to do business over there.”
Kettler, who once shared offices with Feazell, said he and Hall agreed to share fees with him in return for dismissal of charges.
“The three of us were going to share these fees equally,” Kettler said, adding that Feazell also inquired about fees charged to clients.
“I told him I was charging approximately $2,000 each case. His general statement was I wasn’t charging enough. He said what I was getting done for the defendants was worth charging more,” Kettler said.
The federal government alleges Kettler and Hall were part of an “inner circle” of attorneys who kicked back $19,000 to Feazell in return for dismissals of criminal cases.
Kettler and Hall are testifying under immunity from prosecution for tax fraud charges.
Kettler said he convinced Feazell to dismiss charges against his clients until 1984, when Feazell told his partner “he didn’t want me to handle these cases…I was having trouble talking with M. Feazell.”
The reason, he said, was due to a murder case in which Feazell was the prosecutor and Kettler represented the defendant.
Kettler said Feazell “was upset since the murder trial was not going well for the state.”
Kettler said Feazell approached him in the court room and, “You can forget about me doing anything for you (in regard to dismissals of cases).”
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