Page 36 - TPA Journal July August 2022

Joe C. Tooley, Legal Digest Editor
Joe C. Tooley, Attorneys & Counselors, Rockwall, Texas
www.TooleyLaw.com 972-722-1058

TEXAS POLICE ASSOCIATION

LEGAL DIGEST

July-August 2022

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is the goal of this submission to extract those portions of relevant appellate
opinions or the syllabus of the legal reporter which bear directly upon law enforcement methods
and provide guidance for officers on an operational level. Much of the information pertaining to
these cases is lifted verbatim from the court opinion or syllabus with independent analysis inserted
as appropriate. Due to clarity for training purposes, the distinction between quotes from the
opinions and inserted analysis is not always identified and legal citations within the opinion are
often omitted. Emphasis is placed upon reported decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

EVIDENCE – Official Oppression and Altering However, the answer to the conviction for
Government Records tampering with a governmental record is no. We
conclude the court of appeals erred in relying on
Appellant Kevin Ratliff, the Llano chief of police, omissions to support its holding because including
was convicted by a jury of two counts of official the specific facts of the arrest in an offense report
oppression, a class A misdemeanor, and one count is not required by any statute or rule, and any facts
of the misdemeanor offense of tampering with a not stated in the offense report were provided
governmental record. Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ through video evidence. We therefore reverse the
39.03, 37.10. The question we are to resolve in this judgment of the court of appeals and hold the
proceeding is whether the evidence is sufficient to evidence insufficient to support Appellant’s
support these three convictions. conviction for tampering with a governmental
record and render a judgment of acquittal as to that
The answer to the two counts of official oppression count.
is yes. We conclude that a rational jury could find,
beyond a reasonable doubt, that Appellant Background
subjected Cory Nutt to an arrest that he knew was
unlawful and intentionally subjected Cory Nutt to This case involves four police officers—including
mistreatment, knowing that his actions were Appellant—and the warrantless arrest for public
unlawful, by criminally trespassing in Nutt’s home. intoxication of a man inside his recreational vehicle
We therefore affirm the judgment of the court of (RV). Cory Nutt lived in Riverway RV park. Llano
appeals as to those two counts. police officer Grant Harden also lived at the park,
three spaces down. On the night of May 2, 2017,

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