Found Deceased TX - Thomas Brown, 18, Hemphill County, 23 Nov 2016

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I still haven't formed a conclusion about whether Lewis is guilty of murder or of covering up one. However, I know from his previous law enforcement experience in neighboring counties and from his bungling on this case, as well as the recent revelations regarding his felony fabrication of documents, that he NEVER should have been elected sheriff of any county. He may not have shed innocent blood, but his botched crime scene assessment, etc. demonstrate that he was in way way over his head. If he were a humble man, he would have admitted this to himself and resigned long ago. I don't know enough about Clapp to know what kind of sheriff he will be, but at least he did do the right thing in turning over the evidence of document fraud to the state investigative body.

On the one hand, it feels good that things are "happening," in spite of the AG suspension of the case pending new evidence. In some regards, the recent events may well reveal that "new evidence" the AG desires in order to make progress on the case. On the other hand, I wonder if any of this will make a difference, because if there were a crime coverup, evidence would be long destroyed or inadmissible by now. Even if they knew for sure what happened to Tom, I wonder if they would have enough evidence to arrest or convict anyone. Others are rejoicing about this turn of events and hopeful that the killer(s) will be caught and tried. I'm sad, because I think that barring some smoking gun evidence yet to be revealed, this case will never go to trial against anyone. :(
 
New statement from Klein:

"We, the Private Security Board Licensed Investigators are encouraged by the resignation of Sheriff Lewis. Although the issues that surround Sheriff Lewis and TCOLE are not only upsetting to us, however, the sentence in the statement to TCOLE investigators that supplemental reports made to the case file ("fabricated") were false regarding the Thomas Brown case. We believe that law enforcement should be held to a high standard.

More can be read here: Help Find Tom Brown's Killer
 
Hemphill County Attorney, Judge issue joint statement on Sheriff Lewis' resignation
Wednesday, November 13th 2019
“[SBM]

Hemphill County Attorney Kyle Miller and County Judge George Briant released the following joint statement on Wednesday:

The release of the TCOLE investigation and reprimand against Sheriff Lewis raised serious concerns for Hemphill County. The issues raised therein prompted the county attorney to ask for Sheriff Lewis's resignation, in the best interest of Hemphill County and its residents. It is our hope this will allow the community to heal from its divisions and move forward: healthy, vibrant, unique, and unified. Hemphill County remains a wonderful community, and its prospects for the future are brighter still.“
Hemphill County Attorney, Judge issue joint statement on Sheriff Lewis' resignation
 
Wednesday, 13 November, 2019
“As the third anniversary of the disappearance of 18-year-old Thomas Brown of Canadian approaches this Thanksgiving, we begin a series of an interview that KXDJ’s Chris Samples did with Canadian community and business leader Salem Abraham.

Abraham, who graduated with Brown’s mother, Penny Meek, believes whole-heartedly that this is a homicide case.

‘This idea, this talk of suicide, makes no sense to me. How does Tom park his car and then walk 12 miles to commit suicide? Who does that? I believe it’s most likely that Tom was killed, and I believe it was someone living in Canadian who did it. When you look at the facts and you see where Tom’s body was and where his car was left, those aren’t places that people from out of town know about,’ Abraham told Samples.

You can hear more from him by clicking here.

[SBM]

We will add more audio files to this story in coming days.” (BBM)
http://highplainsobserverperryton.c...s-chris-samples-about-brown-case-p26654-1.htm
 
Wednesday, November 13th 2019
“[SBM]

Former Chief Deputy Brent Clapp spoke to TCOLE, during its investigation of whether the sheriff had turned in phony training reports.

In the summary of the TCOLE report, the investigating officers said, ‘Clapp said it wasn't outside the realm of Lewis fabricating a document because he had manufactured a supplement for a missing person a year and half after it happened.’

ABC 7 dug deeper to find the original statements from all the deputies interviewed in the investigation. Because some of the deputies are still employed with the sheriff's office, we agreed to protect their identities.

Here is what Clapp had to say when TCOLE investigators asked why Sheriff Lewis might fabricate the training records:

‘Because we've been through the Tom Brown mess ... on that deal he manufactured a supplement a year and half after the fact,’ Clapp said. ‘Same deal. When you write reports a year and after because why? Because we're getting ready to turn it all over to the attorney general and I go to him and say you've got two pages in this thing. I've got 26. You need to catch up some supplements. You need to do something. Where is your documentation? ...The attorney generals came in and they wanted to know about a video that did or did not exist. It was a huge issue. [surveillance videos from] Dollar General and Fronk. And he came up with a report on that a year and half after the fact.’

A second deputy also discussed the Dollar General surveillance video with a TCOLE investigator:

’Nathan always said there was never a video,’ the deputy said. ’Well, then after the attorney general came down to talk to me about the whole situation he said something one day in his office. He said whenever I looked at the video from the Dollar General there wasn't anything on there, so I threw it away.’

So, was the surveillance video viewed and discarded?

The sheriff said there was simply nothing on it.

As to the documentation of Thomas's investigation, though memory may be imperfect a year and a half after the fact, there is no indication the report is inaccurate. The only allegation here from the deputies is that the report was largely reconstructed long after the event, information that was passed on to the attorney general’s investigators.

ABC 7 asked the attorney general for a copy of the report, and we were told that technically, it is still an open case so the documents are still confidential. We also asked the Hemphill County Sheriff’s Office for its report on the case and have not received a response.

A private investigation agency, Klein Investigations, said there was evidence that was missed by the sheriff’s team, including blood in Thomas Brown's vehicle and a shell casing from a .25-caliber gun.

The deputies and Sheriff Lewis would not comment on the record for this story.

Yet, Sheriff Lewis briefly discussed Thomas' case with TCOLE investigators:

’We had this missing deal come up in November,’ Lewis said. ’I wasn't suppose to take over until January. ... I thought we did everything right. We did everything good. We had the peer reviews with the Rangers. The major of Company C said you all did a fantastic job for a small town agency up here in the Panhandle. You all did fantastic. ... They said, 'Man everything is good.’”

We have provided the raw TCOLE interviews with former Sheriff Nathan Lewis and former Chief Deputy Brent Clapp below.
Be advised, these audio clips contain some strong language.

Sheriff Nathan Lewis TCOLE interview

Chief Deputy Brent Clapp TCOLE interview

[SBM]

ABC 7 reached out to TCOLE to see if the deputies' statements about the reconstructed report would warrant a new investigation.

We received this response: ‘If our investigators come across a separate crime that falls outside of our purview during the course of an investigation, we will turn it over to the appropriate state or local law enforcement agency. In this situation, the investigators had knowledge that another law enforcement agency was looking into the missing person situation.’” (BBM)

Much more at the link:
TCOLE investigation of reveals new information about Thomas Brown case
 
I am just so disgusted with this. Lewis didnt think the video showed anything so he just got rid of it? Does anyone really believe nothing was on it? IF not, then why not just say so and show God and everyone that there was nothing on it? Why deny its existence if it truly showed nothing. He has all but called Penny a liar about the video tape and he knew all along that it did exist. WTF.
 
jellybean96 said:
I am just so disgusted with this. Lewis didnt think the video showed anything so he just got rid of it? Does anyone really believe nothing was on it? IF not, then why not just say so and show God and everyone that there was nothing on it? Why deny its existence if it truly showed nothing. He has all but called Penny a liar about the video tape and he knew all along that it did exist. WTF.
Click to expand...

Exactly! Plus even if it didn't show anything, that might exonerate someone by showing they WEREN'T on a certain street at a certain time, etc. They are still supposed to preserve the evidence. Something might not seem like anything at first but later prove to be important. :(
 
jellybean96 said:
Salem Abraham Speaks With KXDJ's Chris Samples About Brown Case

Interview with Salem Abraham.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for sharing, jellybean. This is all very encouraging, IMO.

I realized something today that also makes me a bit more optimistic. The interview in which Brent Clapp says, “... it wasn't outside the realm of Lewis fabricating a document because he had manufactured a supplement for a missing person a year and half after it happened,” and mentions the issue surrounding videos from Dollar General and Fronk’s was conducted on August 21st, the very same day the meeting between Tom’s family, Klein, LE agencies and the DA took place. Listening to the recordings, his interview started at 10:34 that morning, followed by Lewis’ at 11:20, and according to Klein’s Facebook post the same day, the meeting took place that afternoon. So even if the TCOLE investigators passed the information along to the investigators with the Attorney General’s office right away, it has only been three months.

I hope and pray Clapp is someone who does the right thing: someone who puts justice before his own political aspirations.
 
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