Handcuffed

Granbury city officials said this week that County Attorney Matt Mills’ refusal to prosecute violators of the governor’s COVID-19-related executive orders has put police officers and the public at risk and threatened the city’s enforcement ability.

They also suspect that a political faction aligned with Mills may be hoping to sue the city for “unlawful” arrests during the coronavirus pandemic and ultimately replace current City Council members with their own chosen candidates.

Mills participated in a protest held last Saturday on the square to reopen businesses.

The county attorney confirmed to the HCN on Wednesday that he will not prosecute cases related to the government-forced shutdown of businesses because he feels that the governor’s orders are unconstitutional.

He said that his duty under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure is “not to convict, but to see that justice is done.”

Police Chief Mitch Galvan said he believes that his officers were baited to show up at Lift the Bar Fitness on Tuesday, which reportedly reopened in defiance of the governor’s orders.

Posts on Facebook stated that any law enforcement officers seeking to prevent the reopening had best “bring a lot of guns,” Galvan said.

Owner Todd Hebert has spoken out at recent Commissioners Court meetings against both the governor’s and the county judge’s executive orders shutting down businesses deemed non-essential.

City Manager Chris Coffman stated that supporters of Hebert were on Lift the Bar’s parking lot live streaming Tuesday afternoon. He assumes they were likely hoping to capture any confrontations with police.

In a phone conversation with the HCN Tuesday afternoon, Mills confirmed the reopening and said that he had gone to the gym’s location, where supporters were gathered “on the parking lot.”

He said that any enforcement actions against Lift the Bar would likely have to come from Granbury police because Sheriff Roger Deeds does not seem inclined to arrest anyone “for working.”

Deeds did not respond to an inquiry emailed to him late Wednesday by the HCN but issued a press release on Thursday addressing the issue.

The press release did not specifically state whether the sheriff’s office will take action against violators. Rather, it stated that Deeds “will address any issues as they arise” and that Deeds’ “top priority” is “safeguarding” the rights of citizens.

At the time of the phone conversation between the newspaper and the county attorney, the HCN was not aware that Mills had allegedly informed City Attorney Jeremy SoRelle that he would not prosecute COVID-19-related violations, and he did not mention that policy to the HCN.

“This was a planned, organized setup,” Galvan said of Hebert’s defiance and Mills’ suggestion that the onus would fall on Granbury police. “I wasn’t going to put my officers at risk knowing that Matt Mills is not going to prosecute any cases.”

Galvan and Coffman also noted that Mills himself broke the governor’s orders against non-essential travel when he went to Lift the Bar.

The HCN’s efforts to contact Hebert were unsuccessful, and Mills told the newspaper that Hebert did not want to speak with the media. An employee at the fitness center did not respond to a message from the HCN inquiring about the reopening.

Galvan said that officers did go to Lift the Bar later in the day on Tuesday but the doors were locked and the windows were blacked out.

Coffman noted that the blacked-out windows is “a code violation.” He stated that the city will issue a warning to Hebert to get the situation corrected.

NO ACCOUNTABILITY?

SoRelle said that in his view Mills’ refusal to enforce the governor’s orders constitutes abuse of official capacity.

Mills sees it differently. He has asked the attorney general for an opinion on the constitutionality of state and local government executive orders that shut down businesses and mandate that the public shelter in place.

In an email sent to the HCN on Wednesday, Mills stated: “Prosecuting someone for going to work and earning an honest living is manifestly unjust. This is particularly true given the empty beds in our local hospital, the fact that big box employees aren’t getting sick right and left, and that the dire predictions made a month ago simply aren’t correct.”

Business shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders were instituted nationwide last month in order to flatten the curve of the highly contagious novel virus so that there would be fewer cases and deaths.

In Hood County, there have been 20 positive test results so far for COVID-19 and two COVID-19-related deaths. A third person died of other causes but was diagnosed with the virus, according to Hood County Public Health Authority Dr. David Blocker.

Mills continued, “It’s time for people to get back to work. While I can’t prevent someone from getting arrested, I’m not going to prosecute someone for violating these unjust and unconstitutional orders.”

In Galvan’s view, it makes no sense for the governor to issue executive orders during a public health crisis if those in authority are not going to enforce them.

In his opinion it also makes no sense for business owners and citizens who violate the orders to be at risk of a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, but there is no accountability for any prosecutors who refuse to take the cases.

“The law makes (violating the order) a criminal offense, but if a prosecutor refuses to prosecute a case, there’s no penalty for him refusing to do his job that he took an oath to do,” Galvan said.

“If any county attorney, district attorney, county judge or whatever openly says, ‘I will refuse to prosecute anybody or find anybody guilty of (violating) this order, there ought to be a criminal offense there. Otherwise, what the heck does any of it matter if you have a judicial system that’s not going to enforce the rules?”

Galvan said that his officers not only are at risk of violence in situations involving violation of the governor’s executive orders but could also be at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Coffman said that Mills may be opening himself up to personal liability if someone contracts COVID-19 at businesses that violate the governor’s orders since he has announced that he will not hold violators criminally accountable.

Health officials are actively working to trace where and how anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus contracted it.

Mills, who is in his first term as county attorney, won the Republican primary against challenger Stuart Neal in March. He faces no Democratic challenger on the November ballot.