The legal battle continues between Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). Fullen is suing TCOLE claiming they are violating his rights by trying to suspend his peace officer's license for 10 years. "TCOLE is accusing Fullen of omitting details on his personal history statement, like past arrests before he was in law enforcement, and disciplinary actions during his career...these statements are required by TCOLE," says Robert Arnold, investigative reporter with our TV partner KPRC 2, in his latest reporting on the story.
"The agency recommended revoking his license, but then changed to a 10-year suspension," Arnold continues. That's because Texas law prohibits TCOLE from revoking the license of an elected official, unless they're convicted of a felony.
Sheriff Fullen was already appealing the license suspension before he filed the lawsuit against TCOLE earlier this year. "Both sides went to mediation last Friday, but that ended with no resolution," says Arnold. "Now the case goes back to a state administrative law judge, for a hearing to determine if a 10-year suspension is appropriate."
Fullen's attorney is also seeking a separate hearing on his lawsuit.
TCOLE brought the allegations against Fullen a year ago, when he was still running for sheriff. He was elected in November and took office at the start of the year, with the issue still unresolved. At the time, Galveston County Judge Mark Henry told KTRH he thought the allegations against Fullen were "fairly minor" and didn't think it would affect his duties as sheriff. Fullen himself recently joined KTRH to discuss Jeep Weekend on Galveston beaches.
Sheriff Fullen referred KTRH to his attorney Tony Buzbee for comment. On the status of the case, Buzbee told KTRH, "We will seek to put the court case and our motion to declare TCOLE's action to be illegal back on the civil court docket. My hope is that motion can be heard by July thus ending this matter."
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