Grand jury indicts Angelina County officials

dailysentenial.com

Angelina County Judge Don Lymbery, Commissioners Rodney Paulette and Steve Smith and Road Engineer Chuck Walker were indicted Thursday by an Angelina County grand jury, according to county court records.

The indictments against Lymbery, Paulette and Smith accuses the three of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act on Aug. 9, 2021. Lymbery, Paulette and Smith were recorded on the county’s surveillance system meeting together the afternoon following Smith’s appointment to the court.

The charges against Lymbery, Paulette and Smith are listed as “misdemeanor unassigned.”

Walker was charged with tampering with a government document, a third-degree felony, following question about how Walker handled the pay of an employee who was on vacation. That employee, William Earl Luckey, also was indicted on a charge of tampering with a government document.

Attempts to contact Lymbery, Paulette and Smith were unsuccessful Friday morning. Walker returned a phone call and said he had signed court documents that prohibit him from commenting.

In Texas, if the grand jury determines there is sufficient evidence to prosecute, then a “true bill” is issued, and the defendant remains in custody or on bail pending trial.

The video shows Smith and Paulette entering Lymbery’s office within a minute of each other about 1:50 p.m. and staying there until 2:45 p.m.

The Texas Open Meeting act requires members of a governing body to post notice before a meeting. Specifically, the act applies when a quorum is present and discusses public business, or is present and the governing body is receiving information from or providing information to a third party, according to an analysis of the act by the Texas Municipal League published in 2017.

The act does provide for some exceptions. Those include:

■ At a social gathering unrelated to the body’s public business, including regional, state or national conventions or workshops, ceremonial events or press conferences;

■ Attendance by a quorum of a governmental body at a candidate forum, appearance or debate to inform the electorate, as long as no formal actions are taken and the discussion of public business is only incidental to the event;

■ Attendance at a legislative meeting under certain circumstances.

Other exceptions are in regard to the public or staff in relation to the open meetings act.

Paulette and Smith said they did not discuss any business — just talked about their lives and family; Lymbery said Smith had asked some questions about how the court worked. The footage does not have audio.

No action was publicly announced by the men as a result of this meeting.

Lymbery said he realized the meeting was inappropriate in a story published Aug. 10, 2021, in The Lufkin Daily News.

Violation of the Open Meetings Act is a misdemeanor punishable by:

■ a fine of not less than $100 or more than $500;

■ confinement in the county jail for not less than one month or more than six months; or

■ both the fine and confinement.

■ It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that the member of the governmental body acted in reasonable reliance on a court order or a written interpretation of this chapter contained in an opinion of a court of record, the attorney general, or the attorney for the governmental body.

The Texas Department of Public Safety in mid-January confirmed an investigation into allegations about how Walker handled the pay of an employee who was on vacation.

Commissioners voted in December, after learning of a potential criminal action, not to fire Walker. Commissioners Terry Pitts and Kermit Kennedy voted for firing Walker while Smith, Paulette and Lymbery voted against firing him.

“Some stuff came to my attention about the engineer Chuck Walker and I thought it was disturbing, maybe even criminal,” Pitts said at the time. “It was concerning enough to me to bring it to the court. And once investigated I thought it was serious enough to remove him from office.”

Walker is accused of violating Sec. 37.10. for tampering with a governmental record. Someone commits this offense if they:

■ knowingly makes a false entry in, or false alteration of, a governmental record;

■ makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent that it be taken as a genuine governmental record;

■ intentionally destroys, conceals, removes, or otherwise impairs the verity, legibility, or availability of a governmental record;

■ possesses, sells, or offers to sell a governmental record or a blank governmental record form with intent that it be used unlawfully;

■ makes, presents, or uses a governmental record with knowledge of its falsity; or

■ possesses, sells, or offers to sell a governmental record or a blank governmental record form with knowledge that it was obtained unlawfully.

A third-dgree felony is punishable by:

■ a prison sentence of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years;

■ a fine not to exceed $10,000.