I always wonder why everyone who has been in contact with Lewis and describes interactions with him, he denies the interactions occurred or says they were misunderstood. Penny has three interactions with him: the original confrontation Tom had at the movie theater, the street-level picture of Tom at Fronk's, and one other I can't recall off the top of my head. Then Christian's parents interaction at the restaurant the Lewis denies to Skip later on. Lewis is the most misunderstood person in this story. Everyone else remembers meetings or discussions with him that he later denies.
Right? Poor Nathan
!
Nah
. Thank goodness he is no longer in law enforcement, period, IMO:
“
Lewis insisted that he had never abused his power and that he certainly had not mistreated Tom. He told me that after the movie theater incident, he ran across Tom at a Rotary Club meeting, ‘He was doing a public speaking event for 4H, he went in there and gave a public speaking deal in the Rotary Club one day. And he saw me in the Rotary Club and he approaches me, and he says, “Man, I'm sorry for, for that night.” And
he told me that he told his mother a lie. He said, “Man, I fibbed to my mother” because he, he told his mother that, that I was brute, cussed at him,
pulled a gun, he said all kinds of stuff to his mom. And he said, “Man, I'm sorry for doing all that stuff,” and I said, “Thomas, the past is the past, man, don't worry about it. Just always tell the truth.” And that's all I told him.’” (BBM) [transcript]
Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 2: Tom’s Loop
People also lie about him all the time
!
Here, it appears someone else filed a rather similar complaint, and just like when Penny did on Thomas’ behalf, 31st District Attorney, Franklin McDonough, declined to file charges due to lack of lack of probable cause:
“According to responsive documents
from DPS, Nathan Lewis was being investigated for allegations alleging that
while in his official capacity, he threatened a juvenile probations officer over a recent case the officer was involved in.
[...]
Responsive documents include McDonough’s October 1 letter to the Texas Rangers. In the letter, McDonough said his office rejected the file for insufficient evidence to prove probable cause that the offenses of
Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Tampering with a Witness, or Official Oppression were committed as alleged.” (BBM)
Investigation into Hemphill County Sheriff closed, 31st District Attorney says
Of course, he never said he suspected Tom of being gay or having run away ...
:
“According to Klein, Lewis had already made up his mind about what had happened to Tom. “He said, ‘I think he’s gay. I think he has a fetish of wearing adult diapers and peeing in them.’ He sat there for thirty minutes and tried to convince me that Tom had run away, that he’d run away from life in Canadian.”
Lewis denied ever characterizing Tom this way.” (BBM)
Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 3: “Evil Has Come to Canadian, Texas”
And he even calls Penny a liar
:
“According to Lewis, a few weeks after Tom's disappearance, Penny had done something he found peculiar. She had texted Caleb King'smother, Robin, and asked if Kaleb or his friends knew the four digit password to Tom's iPhone.
‘The way that that went down was Robin King called us at the office and came by and gave us a copy or screenshots, printed them out, of Penny asking her for the passcode. Robin said, “I don't, I don't know the passcode.” And Penny says, “Hey, will you ask Kaleb to try to find the passcode for me? Ask him, have him ask his friends.” “What would you need a passcode for? You don't need a passcode unless you have a phone.”
So why would she want to know the password?
“Clapp contacted me and asked me if I had the four digit four digit passcode to Thomas's phone.” This is Penny.
She told me she had received a call from Brent Clapp, Lewis's chief deputy.
[...]
Robin King wouldn't talk to me for this story, but I emailed Clapp and asked what he remembered. He wrote that he had never asked Penny for the passcode.
[...]
Either Clapp or Penny, of course, could have easily confused the details of a conversation that took place nearly four years ago.
But Lewis told me he was convinced Penny was not telling the truth.
“All right. For the hundredth time, explain the passcode question. She says that ...” “
She’s a liar!” “She says that your chief deputy Clapp called her to ask for Tom's passcode to his cell phone.” (BBM) [transcript]
Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 5: Unusual Suspects
ETA: Maybe Lewis had an associate call Penny, pretending to be then-Chief-Deputy Clapp, IMO.
