WilCo Judge Under Fire For Violating Own Stay-At-Home Order

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell is under fire after photographs emerged this week showing him and his wife attending his grandson's birthday party — and using county resources in the process — in the wake of having ordered residents to stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

On Tuesday, a local government watchdog using the moniker "Buddy Falcon" posted surreptitiously taken photographs provided to Patch showing the judge wearing official firefighter gear borrowed from the Jarrell Fire Department to wear at the child's birthday party. The photos show Gravell donned in full fireman’s attire, complete with oxygen tank and a full-face protective mask.

The social outing is in violation of a Williamson County stay-at-home order Gravell personally signed in late March that have since been extended to April 30, compelling residents to stay indoors amid the spread of COVID-19. To further compel residents' adherence to the order, punitive measures aimed at violators were attached — a $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail, according to the order. Such physical distancing guidelines are meant to blunt the spread of respiratory illness.

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"We know that a virus knows no boundaries, so our Williamson County cities have come together and are united in this fight," the Williamson County judge said at the time. "We are joining our neighboring counties to show that we stand together to provide safety in the region."

Related stories:

• Coronavirus: Williamson County Implements Shelter-In-Place-Order
• Coronavirus: Williamson County Extends 'Stay Home' Order
  
• Coronavirus: Williamson County Illness Count Grows To 110

In extending the order on April 7, Gravell said he was informed by University of Texas at Austin research projecting that up to 100,000 county residents could get the COVID-19 virus given current trends. "Challenging times call for us to make hard decisions, but these have been made with the priority to keep our community as safe as possible, especially those who are part of the vulnerable population," Gravell said in extending his order.

Since then, Gravell has urged residents to comply with the order while doing their part to help others stay safe amid the growing threat of illness:

On Saturday, Williamson County and Cities Health District offials reported three new positive cases of COVID-19 virus in the region, bringing the total number of those diagnosed with respiratory illness to 113. To date, four people in the county have died from the illness.

Shortly after the photos emerged of Gravell dressed like a firefighter at his daughter's home, the judge effected a three-way call among himself, Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick and Georgetown attorney Robert McCabe, the latter told Patch in a telephone interview on Saturday. Gravell contacted McCabe at around 9:15 p.m. on Friday in an attempt to have the photos removed from social media platforms, the attorney told Patch.

Initially, McCabe said he was both concerned — thinking the call was related to a coronavirus emergency — and confused after being alerted to the call deemed an "emergency" by his assistant in relaying the message while the attorney worked from his home in compliance with physical distancing guidelines. The photos were disseminated by a local government watchdog using the handle "Buddy Falcon," who has helped shed light on questionable Williamson County Sheriff's Office practices.

The identity of Buddy Falcon is a closely guarded secret, a person known to Patch who has assisted with information related to stories centered on the sheriff's office. While the source's true identity is known to Patch, it will remain secretive to ensure the person's anonymity.

In receiving the call from Gravell, McCabe theorizes the judge believed the attorney was the elusive Buddy Falcon — which he is not. Or, McCabe reasoned, the judge may have thought he'd reached an ally in McCabe given the attorney's longtime defense work on behalf of law enforcement personnel belonging to the Texas Municipal Police Association, he told Patch.

" 'I need you to take those pictures down,' " McCabe recalled Gravell telling him. "That was the first thing out of his mouth. I told him I'm not Buddy Falcon, I didn't take the pictures, and I'm not going to be doing that."

According to McCabe, Gravell acknowleged having secured the firefighter's gear to attend the birthday for his grandson, who he said he hadn't seen in three weeks, according to the lawyer. " 'If I get prosecuted for that, I'll get prosecuted for that,' " McCabe recalled the judge saying. " 'But I don't want pictures of my daughter's home on social media.' "

Instead of helping him take the photos down, McCabe had stern words for the judge, he told Patch: "We got people missing funerals, re-scheduling weddings and you're dressing up as a fireman for a kid's birthday party, and that's bull****," he recalled telling the judge, who hung up after the scolding.

McCabe told Patch he now plans to file grievances against Gravell on Monday: Abuse of official capacity for using a position of power as a public servant to use taxpayer-funded resources for a non-official purpose; official oppression for having compelled a sheriff's deputy to drive him and his wife to their grandson's birthday party, exposing the officer to potential health risk given the coronavirus spread; and another charge for violating the stay-at-home order for a non-essential trip.

All three of the charges are Class C misdemeanors, McCabe explained. But the attorney said he's yet to ascertain the value involved in the use of firefighter equipment, which could upgrade the charge to a Class B misdemeanor if it goes over $100, the attorney explained.

McCabe said Gravell's original plans were to secure a firetruck to be driven by a firefighter past his daughter's home, with the judge riding in the back to greet his grandson — plans that ultimately did not materialize. The attorney stressed to Patch the county district attorney he's long known was unfamiliar as to the nature of Gravell's call when the judge involved him to reach the attorney. Still, the lawyer said, the charges won't be filed with Dick's office given he's now a witness to the incident by virtue of his unwitting involvement in the judge's actions, which would pose a conflict of interest.

In addition, McCabe said he plans to file a grievance with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. As stated on its website, the mission of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct is "...to protect the public, promote public confidence in the integrity, independence, competence, and impartiality of the judiciary, and encourage judges to maintain high standards of conduct both on and off the bench."

To accomplish its mission, the commission conducts investigatins into allegations of judicial misconduct or incapacity. "In cases where a judge is found to have engaged in misconduct...." the commission website reads, "the Texas Constitution authorizes the Commission to take appropriate disciplinary action, including issuing sanctions, censures, suspensions, or recommendations for removal from office."

For his part, Fire Chief Mark McAdams, who runs the fire and EMS station in Williamson County Emergency Services District #5 in Jarrell, told Patch he regrets having let the judge borrow the equipment on April 7 when Gravell called to request it a few days before "sometime between March 30 and April 3," McAdams said in an email to Patch sent in response to a media request.

"The judge said he wanted to visit his grandson but wanted to make sure he protected him because of the amount of people he had been required to be exposed to in the course of his duties as county judge," McAdams wrote in his April 13 email. "I was wrong in saying yes to this request. The reason it was wrong is that by saying yes, I provided something to the Judge that I cannot provide everyone."

McAdams took full responsibility for the agreement to lend out the equipment: "I take full accoutability for this mistake," he wrote. "It was not the decision of anyone else in this organization, either those appointed or hired."

McAdams said he was not present when Gravell picked up the firefighter's gear — protective clothing, a self-contained breathing apparatus and a helmet from the reserve gear supply — as he was in self-isolation expecting results on a coronavirus test that resulted negative.

A crew member later retrieved the gear, which underwent a decontamination procedure before being returned to service, McAdams said. The fire department has used resources for non-official purposes in the past, McAdams noted. But this was different.

"Whereas the fire department provides many things to the community — whether it be sending a truck to a parade, giving a station tour or providing activity books to the schoolchildren during public education month — this was different, and it was wrong, becasue it showed partial treatment to someone by providing something that everyon cannot have access to. Again, I take full accountability for making the wrong decision."

Separately, "Buddy Falcon" told Patch Gravell reached out via a direct message on Twitter in attempts to have the photographs removed. Buddy Falcon has long been a critic of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office over questionable practices, a spotlight under which Gravell sometimes peripherally appears.

Screenshot of message sent by Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell to Buddy Falcon.

"That is a picture of my daughter's home and my grandson," Gravell wrote Buddy Falcon in a message shared with Patch, seemingly sent from his official account. "Please remove it from your page. You can come after me, but this picture is out of line!"

Despite Gravell's invoking his grandson in demanding the photos' removal, Buddy Falcon told Patch efforts were made not to include the child in the posted photographs.

On Saturday, Patch reached out to Gravell via county spokesperson Connie Odom for comment. By Monday, the latter responded: "Judge Gravell has no comment at this time." Fire Chief McAdams did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Patch that also was sent on Saturday.

The judge's use of county resources could be part of a pattern, McCabe suggested. Shortly after the photos emerged of him donned in firefighter's gear in Jarrel, a source sent other images of the judge seemingly on a leisurely stroll with Williamson CountyPrecinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles— with a couple of sheriff's deputies on bicycles trailing behind them — at the Forest Creek subdivision in Round Rock as they walked their dogs.

The revelations have raised more questions than answers, but McCabe said he plans to look into the matter more closely once the weekend concludes. A former prosecutor in San Antonio who sent Mexican mafia members and other dangerous felons to prison, McCabe referenced his familiarity with the occassional, and genuine, need for security detail. But he was at a loss to explain the need for such measures involving a child's birthday party and a leisurely stroll with a county commissioner.

"Where did the decision come from to assign a security detail?" McCabe asked during his telephone interview with Patch. "Shouldn't it be only for official business? Did he pull the deputies off the streets? And under whose authority? Where's the pause button here?"

Like the birthday party photos, images showing Gravell and the county commissioner trailed by the makeshift security detail have since been shared on social media platforms. Patch has learned there are no plans to remove those photos either.