Sunday, April 28, 2024
Dave Eagle, Jeremy SoRelle
A letter from Hood County Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle threatening possible legal action due to City Attorney Jeremy SoRelle’s alleged stalking and harassment of him was recently sent by certified mail to members of the Granbury City Council.
“Currently, I am trying to decide what legal action I might want to pursue, if any, for being stalked by the City of Granbury’s attorney,” Eagle wrote.
The letter accuses SoRelle of taking a photograph outside the courthouse on the afternoon of Feb. 2 when county offices were closed due to winter weather. Eagle, whose office is at the courthouse, was there that day. His letter states that his friend Nathan Criswell brought a hammer to the courthouse at his request to break up ice on the building’s steps.
“Little did we know that someone was stalking us at that very moment,” Eagle wrote in his letter.
A photo of Criswell leaving the courthouse appeared later that day on the Hood County Killer Whale Group Facebook page along with a post from “Leroy Phoenix” speculating on what the two were doing there when county offices were closed. Criticisms of Eagle, Criswell, and others involved in local politics appear frequently on that Facebook page.
Eagle’s letter refers to SoRelle as a “rogue employee” and accuses him of being Phoenix.
SoRelle, reached on his cell phone while out of town, denied being Phoenix. He declined to comment further but said that he would address the matter more fully upon his return.
Criswell filed a report with the Sheriff’s Office the day after the courthouse incident. The report lists Criswell as the “complainant” and Eagle as the “subject.”
The Sheriff’s Office determined that no crime occurred.
The Hood County News emailed questions to Eagle asking for any evidence that SoRelle is Phoenix and what specific acts the city attorney allegedly committed that make him liable under Texas Penal Code 42.072, which is the statute pertaining to stalking, or any other applicable Texas statute.
Eagle declined to respond to the questions.
“My letter speaks for itself,” he replied via email. “If you would like to publish said letter, go for it.”
The HCN has posted the full two-and-a-half-page letter alongside this article.
Mayor Jim Jarratt said that he could not speak for the City Council, but he indicated that the city might not respond to the letter. He noted that SoRelle is “not a city employee,” as Eagle stated, but rather “an outside vendor” with whom the city contracts for legal services.
SoRelle works for the Hyde Law Firm. The firm’s owner, Paul Hyde, also owns the Hyde Media Group, which owns the HCN and three other community newspapers.
Jarratt said that the city receives communications “every day” about city employees and that he always wants to know the other side of any allegation.
“This one is not even an employee,” he said of SoRelle.
THE LETTER
Eagle’s letter indicates that surveillance cameras captured the license plate number of a large black pickup truck that was headed west on Pearl Street, then north on Houston Street at around the time Criswell was photographed exiting the courthouse.
Eagle did not detail in his letter why a photo that appeared to have been taken by someone on a public street of someone exiting a public building constituted stalking or harassment under the law.
“Upon running ownership connected with this plate number, it turns out that the truck belongs to your city attorney, Mr. Jeremy SoRelle, a/k/a Leroy Phoenix,” Eagle’s letter states.
The commissioner wrote, “Why would the City of Granbury’s attorney be stalking another elected official? Why does he utilize a fake Facebook character to carry out his attacks? Who is ‘pulling his strings’ to have him carry out such a clandestine operation against political opponents?”
Eagle’s letter goes on to say that “stalking and harassment allegations may be advanced under the Texas Penal Code as a criminal matter as well as the Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code as a civil matter.”
The Sheriff’s Office report details the Texas Penal Code’s harassment statute and states, “Based on the law as written it does not appear an offense was committed as (1) the communication of the (Facebook) post was not made specifically to the complainant (Criswell) (2) there is no threatening language contained within the post (3) no false report was made in the post (4-6) no telephone communication was attempted (7) electronic communication was not attempted to the complainant by the person making the post and (8) the communications made are believed related to a public matter of public concern (local politics).”
Eagle’s letter claims that SoRelle’s alleged behavior “could taint future efforts for the city and county to work together on such issues as Hwy 377, wastewater, stormwater and other infrastructure concerns.”
He continued, “Part of my decision-making process will be predicated on how you choose to respond to this correspondence. I am in high hopes we can avoid an embarrassing situation here and now and handle this problem quickly and discretely. That, my friends, I leave up to you.”
