Settlement of lawsuit brought by former MW mayor against city stumbles at the finish line

A lawsuit filed by former Mineral Wells Mayor Christopher Perricone against the city will have to wait on a settlement following the grant of a joint motion to extend the deadline.
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Weatherford Democrat
By Glenn Evans gevans@weatherforddemocrat.com
May 26, 2023

FORT WORTH — Settlement of a federal lawsuit against Mineral Wells by its former mayor stumbled at the finish line on Monday.

Ex-mayor Christopher Perricone sued the city in October 2019, claiming his civil rights were violated after council members censored him based on an investigator’s conclusion he overstepped in dealing directly with city employees.

The 2019 probe was conducted by Arlington attorney James Jeffrey Jr., who also cleared Perricone of one complaint and found 10 others were not backed up by his investigation.

The state lawsuit soon moved into federal court, where District Judge Reed C. O’Connor took up the case. It plodded along until the parties met on April 10 for a settlement conference.

Judge O’Connor directed both sides to file settlement papers no later than May 22. Papers filed by the city that day, however, reveal disagreement over exactly what each side expected of the other coming out of the April 10 meeting.

The last thing filed by the May 22 deadline was a joint motion asking O’Connor for another 30 days “to file appropriate settlement papers,” its heading reads.

The city’s earlier filing says Perricone had offered two pathways to settle during the April 10 face-to-face meeting. It says Perricone, Mayor Regan Johnson and City Manager Dean Sullivan were there with their attorneys.

According to court documents, Perricone offered to settle the case for $2,500 — or for $1 if the council voted to rescind the reprimand it handed him in 2019.

The city chose the former, according to the filing, which acknowledged that Perricone said he would keep the $1 option open for one week.

An email sent the night of the April 10 conference from attorney Stephen Henninger, representing the city, sought to confirm the $2,500 payment, which would be through the city’s Texas Municipal League coverage.

Three days later, Henninger wrote again to Perricone attorney Luke Beshara asking him to “confirm our settlement” and included a joint settlement report for the judge to sign.

That night, Beshara was not on the same page with Henninger.

“That is not entirely correct,” Beshara wrote. “The parties have agreed to a settlement on those terms, but the city is also to consider and vote upon the alternative proposal of $1 along with the passage of a resolution rescinding the censure/reprimand of my client.”

Henninger emailed back the next morning, replaying the two offers Perricone had made and that the city had accepted the one that left the reprimand in place.

“Plaintiff (Perricone) accepted this offer,” Henninger wrote. “The face-to-face settlement conference then concluded.”

Five weeks and three days later, the judge’s deadline to settle arrived, prompting the joint motion for another 30 days.

The Weatherford Democrat reached out to both Henninger and Beshara seeking comment. Henninger did not reply to an email, and Beshara did not respond by deadline.