In the Casefile podcast, Tom’s mom talks about the run-in he had with NL when he was still a deputy with Lipscomb County Sheriff's Office.
Case 85: Tom Brown - Casefile: True Crime Podcast
I’m sorry for quoting one of my own posts. I just wanted to bring it forward in light of the latest turn of events.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the latest investigation by the Texas Rangers involving Nathan Lewis is not related to the Tom Brown case (thanks for the heads-up, jellybean96
).
The following was published in The Canadian Record on July 23, 2015. The letter was written by the previous sheriff of Hemphill County, James Pearson and describes in detail the last investigation into Nathan Lewis by the Texas Rangers. While no specific details about the latest investigation involving NL have been shared with the public, I am wondering maybe additional similar allegations have been made against him. And if so, perhaps NL started harassing Tom that night once he was alone, Tom said to NL he was sick of it and that he was going to report NL’s behavior to the state law enforcement authorities, at which point, he harmed Tom to prevent that from happening:
Thursday 23 July 2015
“Sheriff Pearson responds”
“TO THE CITIZENS OF CANADIAN, TEXAS and Hemphill County, by now you are all certainly aware of a citizen’s complaint against Nathan Lewis and of my means of handling the situation. The facts from my professional perspective are the following.
I received a complaint from a citizen who was concerned because Nathan Lewis had stopped her son and two other young men in downtown Canadian. This person knew that Mr. Lewis was out of his jurisdiction, and wanted to know if I had been notified. I obviously had not been notified and knew nothing of the incident.
Furthermore, the parent was concerned over the alleged mistreatment of her son by Mr. Lewis. The mistreatment alleged would best be described by me as rude and unprofessional, based on what I was told. The young men were detained, and one was allegedly detained and placed in Mr. Lewis’s Lipscomb County Sheriff’s Office patrol unit and questioned. Nothing nefarious was discovered, and a ‘courtesy call’ was placed to one of the parents.
As sheriff of Hemphill County, I have a responsibility and requirement to make sure complaints are looked into and investigated further as the need arises. In my opinion, due to political reasons and the nature of the complaint, I felt it prudent to refer the parent to the Texas Rangers to issue the complaint to them. I provided the phone number, and the parent felt that this matter was important enough to contact Ranger Mike Smith.
Ranger Smith determined after looking into the matter that, in his opinion, no crime had been committed. At that point, my responsibility and Ranger Smith’s responsibility and requirement to look into the complaint had been fulfilled. I spoke with the parent that initiated the complaint and she was fine with the result, although very concerned about Mr. Lewis being out of his jurisdiction.
Mr. Lewis saw fit to refer you to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP), Article 14.03, titled the Authority of Peace Officers, which sets out when and where peace officers may arrest someone without a warrant. This CCP article is accurate and lays out the specific rule nicely.
First let me say that I have no problem if Mr. Lewis or any other official looks into any potential crime as they pass through our city and county. Article 14.03 of the CCP clearly gives one that authority. After all, it appears that Mr. Lewis may have thought a burglary was about to be committed. Burglaries are a despicable crime by nature which violate an individual on a personal level. Stopping a criminal from breaking in and destroying or stealing property is the intent.
Surely Mr. Lewis feels that anyone that commits or has committed such an offense should be incarcerated. He felt something may be up and stopped the young men because all too often people get away with these types of crimes and are not prosecuted. But, there is a problem.
The contact in and of itself may be ‘lawful,’ but Mr. Lewis’s total failure to notify the Hemphill County Sheriff’s Office of his activities, whether an arrest was made or not, is completely unacceptable. There is a basic protocol that every law enforcement official I know adheres to.
Where was my ‘courtesy call?’ You will not find this in the CCP. You may not find it in document form anywhere, but it exists nonetheless. An officer simply notifies the jurisdictional agency out of nothing more than pure decency, professionalism and common courtesy, regardless of what activities are being performed.
What if Mr. Lewis violated someone’s constitutional rights? Who is liable? Hemphill County? Lipscomb County? Mr. Lewis? Sheriff Pearson? What if it was a hardened criminal that Mr. Lewis made contact with and he was assaulted or, heaven forbid, shot? Who will help Mr. Lewis? Hemphill County dispatch is unaware of his ‘investigation’ and could not send a Deputy or an ambulance if they needed to.
His failure to notify also potentially placed my deputies in harm’s way as well, since nobody has been informed of anything. We as law enforcement officials deal with the ‘what if’s’ and the unexpected every day. Why put yourself in that situation? I could go on and on.
I am also sure that the citizens of Canadian and Hemphill County would prefer that crimes be prevented by an out-of-jurisdiction officer, or off-duty officer. as opposed to those officers ‘turning their heads and continuing on with their business.’ I agree.
But I’d bet a year’s salary that these same fine folks would prefer that these out- of-jurisdiction officials notify their Sheriff’s Office and act in a manner that breeds courtesy, professionalism and safety to all involved.
JAMES PEARSON, Sheriff”
https://findingthomas.weebly.com/up.../pearson_letter_to_editor_re_deputy_lewis.pdf