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Victoria Police Chief Bruce Ure and his attorney, Greg Cagle, plan to fight all allegations of wrongdoing.
“It’s all false, and we will fight all of it,” Cagle, a League City attorney, said Wednesday. “We will vigorously fight all of these charges.”
A Victoria County grand jury indicted Ure on Tuesday on five counts. Four counts are felonies: misuse of official information, aggravated perjury, tampering with a witness and criminal conspiracy. One is a misdemeanor: official oppression.
Former city attorney David A. Smith also was indicted on the same charges.
The indictment stems from the investigation and indictment of former sheriff and former district attorney chief of staff Michael Ratcliff, who was indicted Oct. 25 on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a teenage boy.
Ure was surprised by the charges, but not by who pushed them, Cagle said.
“Based upon Tyler’s inability to get along with virtually any law enforcement agency in the county, he’s not surprised, given the source of the indictment,” Cagle said.
District Attorney Stephen Tyler responded. “I think he’s blowing smoke. That’s what he gets paid to do” about Cagle. He added an independent grand jury, comprised of citizens, indicted Ure.
Cagle said he was perplexed Tyler wanted to prosecute the cases against Ure and Smith after he admitted he couldn’t prosecute the Ratcliff case because he could be called as a witness.
“The whole thing is crazy,” Cagle said. “He names himself in the indictment. I assure you he will be a witness in this case.”
Tyler referred Cagle to Article 5, Section 24 of the Texas Constitution and added he doesn’t think there’s cause for a recusal. If Cagle believes otherwise, he can file a motion, Tyler said.
“My name’s nowhere on it,” Tyler responded. “But you will note, his client’s name is.”
Tyler’s position, not name, is referred to in the tampering with witness and criminal conspiracy charges of the indictments.
Cagle, as an attorney, has dealt both with Tyler and with a similar case in San Jacinto County, where he said the district attorney lost his career after getting caught up in a “personal vendetta” and fought police.
Although not sure how similar this case is to the one in San Jacinto, Cagle said he thinks this case could destroy the Victoria community.
An indictment is a piece of paper, Tyler responded. The actions it alleges hurt the community, but the community will survive it, he said.
“Communities are resilient. It doesn’t get any better to deal with our problems by sticking our head in the sand,” Tyler said. “We’re going to deal with it. Instead of back rooms and shady deals, this will be handled in a court of law ... open to the public.”
But Cagle insisted in the strongest terms that the allegations against Ure were false.
“This guy has lost his mind,” Cagle said about Tyler.
Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.