County Judge Accused of Violating Stay-At-Home Order for Grandson's Birthday

GEORGETOWN, TX – Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell is facing a criminal complaint after violating the stay-at-home order he issued in March. The order stated those who violated the order could be fined or face jail time.

According to KXAN, on April 7, 2020, Gravell attended his grandson’s birthday party wearing firefighting equipment while being escorted by a sheriff’s deputy.

According to the complaint, Judge Gravell had the deputy drive him and his wife to the Jarrell Fire Department to obtain firefighter “bunker gear” and a respirator. The deputy then drove the couple to their daughter’s home to attend the birthday party.

A neighbor who witnessed the incident took pictures of the judge outfitted in the firefighter gear. The pictures were then posted on a Twitter account with the username “Buddy Falcon.”

Robert McCabe, a Georgetown attorney who filed the complaint, saw the post and in a comment on the post pointed out he believed the judge had committed a crime by obtaining taxpayer-owned fire gear for personal use.

Less than 30 minutes after McCabe published the comment, he received a call from Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick stating Judge Gravel wanted to speak with him.

“He [Dick] relayed that Gravell was holding on the other line and that it was an emergency that he reach me. Dick was concerned about the urgency of the call and opined that it must be related to a COVID-19 situation,” stated McCabe in the complaint. “I assured Dick that I was confident it was related to the Twitter post referenced above and asked that Dick bring Gravell into the call. Prior to me relaying that information to Dick, it was apparent Dick had no knowledge of any Twitter post.”

According to McCabe, the three of them engaged in a 3-way conversation in which the county attorney did not make any comment.

“Gravell asked that I remove the Twitter photographs posted by ‘Buddy Falcon’ referenced above. I informed Gravell that I had no control over “Buddy Falcon” posts, that I did not take the photographs and that I did not have a way to remove them. Gravell stated that if I had a problem with he or Williamson County Sheriff Chody that I could take it up with them but he needed his daughter and other family left out of it.”

According to McCabe, during the phone call, Gravell admitted to violating at least two states, knowing the county attorney was listening to the call.

“He stated that he was fully aware Dick was on the phone and knew full well that he could be prosecuted for his misconduct, that he had a deputy drive him and his wife to the Jarrell Fire Department where he then borrowed bunker gear, dressed up and had the deputy drive him to his grandson’s birthday party so he could surprise him because he had not seen him in some weeks,” wrote McCabe.

“Gravell asked again if I could take action to remove the photographs posted by ‘Buddy Falcon.’ I declined and told him that people are missing funerals, re-scheduling weddings and have been unable to see their loved ones due to the stay at home orders, that he was not above anyone else and that I did not appreciate his ‘do as I say, not as I do’ action, that what he did was “bulls—” and that I was not interested in helping him in any way.”

Judge Gravell then hung up at that point, according to McCabe.

In the complaint, McCabe accused the judge of committing several infractions. The following issues were cited in the complaint.

Abuse of Official Capacity

“Gravell used his position as County Judge to misuse government property from the Jarrell Fire Department to dress-up to surprise his grandson for a birthday party. That equipment was out of service while being used by Gravell. The property must be re-sanitized before being placed back into service for official use. This will result in an expense.”

“Gravell used his position as County Judge to misuse government personnel by having a sheriff’s deputy drive he and his wife to the Jarrell Fire Department and onward to the birthday party. This was for a non-official purpose. The deputy was presumably being paid for his services by the taxpayers and not by Gravell personally.”

Official Oppression

“Gravell used his position as County Judge to subject the sheriff’s deputy driver to mistreatment, namely, by unnecessarily exposing that deputy to health risks during the COVID-19 emergency, by having that deputy drive him to the Jarrell Fire Department and onward to his grandson’s birthday party for a non-official purpose.”

Violation of the Emergency Management Plan

“Gravell was not engaged in official county business as an essential employee when he violated the ‘stay at home’ orders in place at the time he attended the birthday party on April 7, 2020.”

As of this time, County Attorney Shawn Dick has recused himself from the case as he may be called as a witness to the phone call that allegedly transpired between the judge and McCabe.

Dick provided local media a statement that corroborated details McCabe had listed in his complaint.

“Judge Gravell informed me that they had been urgently trying to get ahold of a local defense attorney Robert McCabe, and had been trying to call his work-related numbers and had been unable to connect with Mr. McCabe. Judge Gravell never told me what the urgent matter was, however, based on my knowledge of the critical operations and Judge Gravell’s involvement at the Williamson County Emergency Services Operations Center, I believed that Mr. McCabe or one of his clients may have been exposed to the Coronavirus. 

“I contacted Robert McCabe’s personal cell phone number at 3:54 p.m. and asked if he wanted to talk with Judge Gravell, assuming that either he or a client, had somehow been exposed to the virus. Mr. McCabe agreed to the three-way phone call.”

“I have unfortunately been placed in the position of being a witness in this case, and therefore my office is ethically conflicted out of handling the prosecution.  I have made a referral to Mr. Hobbs our County Attorney for his consideration and anticipate forwarding Mr. McCabe’s written complaint to Mr. Hobbs as soon as I receive it,” Dick wrote.

Williamson County Sheriff Chody would not give specifics as to why a deputy would drive the county judge to a birthday party in a normal vehicle.

“The sheriff’s department determines what Law Enforcement services are necessary and when they are necessary,” said Chody. “I will not respond on matters of security involving anybody as a matter of protocol. I’ll give you one such example, if a threat is made on a judge, leader of our community, or just anybody in general, I would not relay the information unless it was necessary as a matter of security protection of all involved. That’s not a new concept.”

Chody also criticized the “Buddy Falcon” twitter page for having an agenda. Chody has been a target of the Buddy Falcon for more than a year as the page publishes information criticizing the sheriff’s office.

“If you want to know what’s inaccurate in your story. Contact the County Attorney or District Attorney to determine and ask if an actual violation of the order occurred or if any law was broken as your story states,” the sheriff wrote after he was unable to point out factual error or inaccuracies in the reporting doing by KXAN.