Skip Hollandsworth: Well, wait a second. According to a report produced in October, TCOLE was alerted to allegations of document fabrication against Sheriff Lewis by then . Klein did tell me he was still seeking evidence to support the most recent of the many theories he has floated about the case. Im the senior investigator from a company called Klein Investigations and Consulting and Texas Professional Bodyguards LLC out of Nederland, Texas. Im probably just going to keep doing what Im doing. . But he accidentally pulled the trigger. Chris was at work. Penny did tell me that Kading had told her that she suspected the family had found Toms body after he killed himself, and that out of a sense of shame they had moved his body, hoping no one would find him. Tucker Brown: Im the fifth-generation person from Canadian. I think they were panicked, as they realized we were going to release some new information thats never been released about the Tom Brown case today, including a possible manner of death. Would you want someone like me investigating it? Lewis assumed the office of Sheriff for Hemphill County on. OAG's Criminal Investigations Unit assisted in the investigation of Brown's death and also assisted the Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit in reviewing all of the collected evidence. HEMPHILL COUNTY, TX (KFDA) - Hemphill County Sheriff Nathan Lewis is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, according to the Texas Department on Public . Florida Sheriff Goes Nuclear on Neo-Nazi 'Motherf*ckers' Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood fumed that it was an "honor" to be included on the "hit list" of an . When I started working on this story almost a year ago, I assumed that the truth about Toms case would eventually come out. Before I left Canadian, I drove by some of the towns landmarks. The crash occurred shortly before 5:30 p.m. Saturday on Trail C5A (Flat Rock Road) in the town of Martinsburg . A continuously updated summary of the news stories that US political commentators are discussing online right now. Paxton ruled in December that Hemphill County Sheriff's Office must comply with an open records request filed in October by an attorney for Penny Meek, Brown's mother. Our hope at that time was that if we did this, maybe the truth would come out. Lewis also said the consequences would be dire if he didnt transfer. The Unit engaged independent experts to identify any further leads that could be developed. Box 233 Lowville, NY 13367-0233 Telephone: (315) 376-3511 Fax: (315) 376-5232 Livingston County Sheriff's Department Kading decided to have the polygraph examiner ask Penny and Chris about the phone. The county attorney said, Hey, Nathan, we have way too much heat on us [over the Tom Brown case], Lewis recalled. On Tuesday, Oct. 26, deputies went to Lewis' home following information gathered that a substantial amount of narcotics and firearms were located there. steven orr. . "There's not one person in this community that doesn't think about this," said Hemphill County Sheriff Nathan Lewis. Thomass family has questioned if that happened in his case. Heres Chris talking long-distance to Caroline Gear on a prison telephone. Incredibly, the phone was in perfect condition. Chris Samples: Try to get your brain around this one. Rachel Kading: There is no evidence that he went to the football parking lot. Serving as your Sheriff in Real County is one of the greatest honors of my life and I have done so to the best of my. He had told a few close friends he was afraid that people in Canadian would hear that he sometimes liked wearing adult diapers. I've got 26. Pulled up behind him, Penny said, and started messing with him and perhaps accidentally shot him. And one of the biggest rumors now making its way through town was that the private investigator Phillip Klein had new evidence linking Lewis to Toms murder. Because he had a few minutes left before his curfew, he drove to the parking lot of the high school football stadium, where Canadian kids occasionally gathered. The bullet entered through the top of Toms neck and lodged in his brain. I dont know the truth about what happened to Thomas, but I know the truth about where I was. Two written reprimands from the commission are subject to suspension. Its fact, okay? At one point, he said he had received information that Tom had been accidentally shot by another teenager in the parking lot of the high school football stadiumand that the teenagers father, as well as Sheriff Lewis, had helped hide Toms body to avoid a scandal. . Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. . Hemphill County Judge George Briant said Nathan Lewis submitted his resignation shortly before five this evening. Where is your documentation? Rachel Kading: Whats unethical about it is that if you do not feel that the indictment is going to lead to a conviction at trial, you are really shorting the case. Man: You need to get out of Canadian, Klein. Its really funny. We dont sit in an office. And let me tell yall something. There have been plenty of bombshell revelations in this complicated and tragic story. Its our fault people dont want to come here. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Thomass family hired private investigator Philp Klein shortly after he went missing. If someone had something to do with his disappearance, I could have tried to protect him. Were getting the signal? Skip Hollandsworth: And her answer was registered by the lie detector examiner as deceptive. But now I am not sure who was involved. I asked Penny how she was doing, living in a town where everyone talks about her. With a winning margin of roughly 7,800 votes in the November election, Harmon said he was ecstatic to have been chosen by the county's residents . Lewis was charged with one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the seventh degree and one count of Criminally Using Drug Paraphernalia in the second degree. Someone said she thought she saw Kading talking to the new sheriff, Lewiss former chief deputy Brent Clapp. Last night, coach, Klein Investigations, Philip Klein, the private investigator hired by the. Copyright 2019 KFDA. Or he had been murdered by one of the friends who had gone cruising with him. That somebodys going to talk? Lewis was sheriff when Thomas Brown went missing in 2016. Lewis resigned from his post after being formally reprimanded by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) for falsifying training records. Lewis said this to TCOLE investigators about Thomass case: "We had this missing deal come up in November, Lewis said. You were certain of that? Griffith, 35, was taken into custody in Delray Beach, Florida, just after 4:00 a.m. We need to heal as a community and basically get away from all this., Lewis said he and the other deputies had actually completed their training hours but that he had simply submitted the reports incorrectly. Toms disappearance became the mystery of the Texas Panhandle. The day after the meeting, everyone of course was talking about Kleins latest story. Im your writer and host, Skip Hollandsworth. 32,537. The economy here is bad because we gave Canadian a black eye. . Suddenly, in households across Canadian, everyone was asking the same question: what new evidence had Rachel Kading unearthed? BERKELEY COUNTY In a letter to WRNR TV10, Berkeley County Sheriff Nathan Harmon addressed a situation regarding a traffic accident that involved his daughter on Jan. 6 of this year. And, as a matter of fact, Chris Jones has told multiple stories over the years. The fax number for Human Resources is 541-774-6455. The breathtaking dancing shimmer of the aurora borealis and its counterpart in the southern hemisphere, aurora australis, dazzles those lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Earth's greatest light show. I began to wonder if anyone would ever learn the truth about what had happened to Tom. Theres been just a lot of conjecture in the case, and it harmed it, honestly. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. The attorney generals office, however, did release a 249-page report that Kading had compiled about the case, which perhaps offered a few hints about what she was thinking. Lewis has also been accused-both formally and informally-of numerous other breaches of the law and his ethical duty as a law . Its not going to happen. Then that adult called Lewis, a close friend. Lewis told me he later met with Hemphill County officials, who asked for his resignation. She did not answer the question. And Im like, Im pretty sure I didnt make the oil field go away, but if you want to think I did that, then thats fine., Pennys friends, however, defended her as a loving mother overwhelmed with grief over the loss of her son. What was the question asked them? Rachel Kading: When we kind of came to the end of the case and we really werent sure, still, what had happened, but we knew that people were lyingsomebody has to be lying in this casewe discussed having an investigational grand jury. This idea was pioneered by Christian identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970's and described as Posse . Home New Members Photos. Families of missing persons hope law enforcement would do all they could to locate their loved one. Nathan Lewis has been released from his role as Hemphill County Sheriff. Find agency contact information, phone numbers, addresses and more. Penny told Kading that she was mistaken. There was no question that Pennys behavior could sometimes be inexplicable. Skip Hollandsworth: What were other stories Chris Jones told you or others about what happened that night? We get out there with our water bottles, and we get our butts out there in the streets and we find out whats going on. Oct 27, 2021. Rachel Kading: I think that collectively as a group, at the AGs office, we just felt that it was important to put out some facts. I want all of you to think: What if it was your child? Chris said that next to Tom he saw Pyne Gregory, the sheriffs deputy, with a hat on his head and a gun in his hand. Yet those rumors went nowhere. Just about everyone assumed he would announce the names of the teenager and the father who were involved in the parking-lot shooting. PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. - A homicide suspect was taken into custody Thursday evening, the Pickens County Sheriff's Office announced. Click here to read the survey answers. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. Rachel Kading: We were told that he was home all night. ET on Friday, February 24, according to a booking report obtained by Us. Its crazy he can just say this stuff and people get to hear it., So, I asked Lewis, what did he believe happened on Thanksgiving eve? Jason Daniel Smith, 45 of Garrison, MN 56450 for GM 3rd Degree DWI. Thats like a movie, he said. The private investigation firm hired by Browns family, Klein Investigations, posted on Facebook that Lewis resignation is a positive move as well as bad news to those who may be involved in Browns case. And in the meantime, weve ruined the sheriff and his familys life. Penny said theyve even been blamed for a faltering economy; it just so happened that an oil bust had begun ravaging the region the same year Tom disappeared. But because so little was left of his remains, an autopsy could not determine the cause of death. Nathan Heller / New Yorker: The End of the English Major . Which, impossible. . We have theories, obviously. He suspected she then hid the body out of shame, perhaps even persuading her husband or her older son to help her. So it was decided that we would not do the grand jury for that reason, and we would just continue to work on the case. Maybe that person wouldnt have messed with Tom in the first place if a second person was there. Penny Meek: I dont even know where it is, to be honest. And he pulled a gun on me. Whats unethical about that? The year before, Toms mother had filed a complaint against Lewis for allegedly harassing her son. Everybody shaking good? Will we ever know who parked Toms Durango by the water treatment plant? Cover up the crime., Did Lewis recommend dumping the body on Lake Marvin Road?, We dont know that. I thought we did everything right. Twelve remaining charges against former Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis have been dismissed, in part due to the crippling effects the coronavirus has had on the criminal justice system. I'm not sure what that was all about, but I don't think it's nothing. Maybe there was something about Chriss activities that night that she didnt want to give away. Lewis resigned as Hemphill County sheriff in November 2019. Rachel Kading: I mean, I cant say with one hundred percent certainty that there would be indictments, but it was the feeling of myself, other members of the investigative team, and the district attorneys office that there would be multiple indictments. Im not going to argue with you to try to change your opinion, because I know at the end of the day, or when I have to look at myself in the mirror at the nighttime, or when I get up in the morning, I didnt do anything to my son. (LogOut/ If you go through a grand jury and you have an indictment, but you dont have enough to convict somebody at trial, its just not ethical to do that. And did she, months later, plant the phone by Lake Marvin Road, where it was found? We had the peer reviews with the Rangers. The attorney general announced in August 2019 there was no foul play in his death. GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The civil case against former Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis, has been settled. Rachel Kading: Theres no evidence that the sheriffs office asked her for the passcode. The media is making us look horrible. "OAGs Criminal Investigations Unit assisted in the investigation of Mr. Browns death and also assisted the Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit in reviewing all of the collected evidence. . Pictured: Nathan Lewis, former Sheriff of Hemphill County, TX. Or even that members of Toms family knew far more about what had happened than they were letting on. It led other deputies to question the documentation in Thomass case. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. I hear your pain. On the night before Thanksgiving, 2016, Tom went cruising around town with his friends. But kidnapping Tom was supposed to inspire Chris to play harder and win a playoff football game? On Tuesday, October 26, 2021, Sheriff Windham and SCSO deputies completed a narcotics operation at a residence in Timpson. Merriam Woods Police Chief Nathan Lewis has been fired. In the months before his death, he unexpectedly had quit the football team and broken up with his girlfriend. So, lets just say, a hypothetical. When I talked to Penny about all this a year ago, she told me it was the sheriffs department that had asked her to find the passcode. Investigators with the Texas Attorney Generals Office agreed to review Thomass case in 2018. February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? But were not here, like I said earlier, to make you feel good. Chris? Not Philip Klein. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. . Then, in the late summer of 2020, just as we were wrapping the podcast, there were rumors that the attorney-general investigators wanted the local district attorney to call a grand jury. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. Personal Facebook. Bring on the Shiplap? But none of the physical evidence seemed to make any sense. 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