I just wanted to write to thank you, your organization, and my TMPA attorney Greg Cagle for all the help you provided to me during the last year and a half.  On December 4, 2003, I was terminated . . .  I won't go into depth regarding the incident, but let's just say that on the night of Thanksgiving 2003 I arrested a subject with a TCLEOSE card in his wallet. Before my termination, I contacted Greg Cagle, who I consider to be a good personal friend and who I consider to be the best friend to any and all police officers in this region, who reassured me I did nothing wrong. Still, I felt I was going to lose my job and, sure enough, I did. Mr. Cagle prepared an appeal to present to the Kemah city council and the mayor. . . but the council decided between what one of them called 'doing the right thing or backing the chief' to unanimously uphold my termination. . .

After an unsuccessful attempt to re-enter the area's law enforcement community, I decided it was time to go ahead with a lawsuit against the city and chief Owen, so in May of 2004 Greg Cagle prepared my lawsuit. In April of this year, we won that lawsuit!!!!! I was restored to my position as police Sergeant, recovered my back pay, and the court ordered the disciplinary action and related documents which formed the basis of the termination to be expunged from my employment records. On top of that, the person I arrested filed a lawsuit and that case was settled out of court, so it seems Kemah was doubly wrong!!! Not only did they have to pay me for wrongfully terminating me, but they had to pay my arrestee because they chose not to back me on a righteous arrest.

 None of this would have been possible without my choosing to be a member of the Texas Municipal Police Association and its outstanding legal defense fund. There is no way I would have been able to afford to hire an attorney, much less the services of someone as competent as Greg Cagle, had I not opted to maintain a membership with the TMPA. 

Everyone of us has car insurance, homeowner's or renter's insurance, health insurance, and life insurance, but not all of us thinks about career insurance until it's too late. I implore every police officer in the state of Texas to get on board and join the TMPA BEFORE they need it. I was ordered to receive all these things by the court, but the one thing it did not specify to be restored to me which was most important to me, and which was restored to me by the very outcome of the judgment, was my good name and reputation. Thank God for your organization and for Greg Cagle.  If I ever choose to get back into law enforcement again*, my first expense will be renewing my membership with TMPA. I personally consider membership in TMPA to be mandatory, and every officer in Texas should do the same.