Three men with the Liberty County Fire Marshal's Office accused of committing crimes while on the job are out on bond.
Texas Rangers conducted the investigation. Court documents say none of the men had any TCFP state licenses to perform fire inspections or fire investigations. Officials also say they conducted criminal fire investigations where they seized evidence.
William "Bill" Hergemueller, 63, is charged with official oppression, tampering/fabricating physical evidence, tampering with a government record, and theft of property. Hergemueller is a fire marshal and coordinator for the Office of Emergency Management in Liberty County. He also serves as a firefighter with the Highway 321 Volunteer Fire Department.
Erskine "Nat" Holcomb, 64, is charged with tampering with a government record and theft of property. He is also a deputy fire marshal as well as the chief of the Cypress Lakes Volunteer Fire Department.
Jesse McGraw, 49, is charged with tampering with a government record and tampering/fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair. He is the assistant chief of the Highway 321 Volunteer Fire Department and a deputy fire marshal.
The three men were booked into jail Monday and released on the same day.
Court records also state that Hergemueller and Holcomb stole various items from crash scenes. The two men are accused of siphoning fuel from an overturned 18-wheeler with other members of their hazmat company following a crash in December of 2022. Also stolen from the 18-wheeler were items that the truck was carrying including meats like venison, cheese, croissants and butter.
A similar instance happened less than a year later when Hergemueller, Holcomb, and other members of the hazmat company responded to a fatal crash. According to the arrest affidavit, the men gained access to the crash scene on FM787 thanks to their positions with the fire marshal's office and then stole a bumper cover and rims that were part of the box truck's load that crashed.
All three men are a part of the nonprofit South Liberty County Hazardous Materials Team with Hergemueller as the chief of the team.