Gatekeeper flacks Demo ex-cop in sheriff's race

Demands interview clearance on Facebook

Charges of racism and on-the-fly rules changes hallmarked the short-lived takeover of media coordination of the Reverend Willie Tompkins' campaign as the Democratic nominee for Sheriff of McLennan County.

Kathy Schroeder, who has mounted a one-woman Facebook campaign against GOP hopeful Parnell McNamara for the past month, suddenly announced on Monday that in the future all media communication with Rev. Tompkins must first be printed on the “Race for McLennan County Sheriff” page.

The fact that Ms. Schroeder is not an administrator on the Facebook page didn't seem to cramp her style.

She also engaged in spirited debate with other participants over whether her mention of Mr. Tompkins' campaign, if successful, would mark the distinction of becoming the first black man elected Sheriff of McLennan County.

Vigorous debate, pro and con, resulted. Mr. Tompkins said nothing about it.

We'd love to provide a sample, but all of her work disappeared – suddenly and without explanation.

Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

Rev. Tompkins, whose resumé included mention of a long career in law enforcement as a security guard, a member of the Waco Police Department as an undercover vice and narcotics detective, instructor at the police academy, and Chief of Police at McLennan County Community College, demurred when a schedule conflict forced a postponement of an interview.

We had discussed talking over his part as a witness in the murder trial of Mohammed Muneer Deeb, a conspirator convicted of capital murder in the killings of three high school aged Methodist Home residents dubbed the “Lake Waco Murders.”

Rev. Tompkins was working as a security guard at a Skaggs Albertson's store on Valley Mills Dr. when Mr. Deeb got in the habit of dropping in for coffee. He revealed his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot with three men that went tragically wrong when they attacked the wrong youths due to a mistaken identity of one of the young ladies.

When he apprehended what Mr. Deeb was talking about, he turned his knowledge over to Sgt. Truman Simon of the Waco police, who was the lead investigator in the trials of David Wayne Spence and two other parties to the killings. Mr. Spence was later executed by lethal injection.

Mr. Deeb won a new trial in which he was acquitted in 1992 after an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals resulted in the suppression of hearsay testimony, a reversible error committed by Judge John McLean of the 249^th Judicial District at Cleburne, where the case had been moved on a motion for a change of venue.

He died several years later of cancer while he operated a computer repair service in Dallas.

During the trial, Mr. Deeb's attorney objected vigorously to hearsay testimony offered by a jail house snitch who was housed with Mr. Spence in the Brazos County Jail at Bryan. He testified as to remarks made by “Chili, David Wayne Spence, regarding Mr. Deeb's hiring he and his two fellow assailants with promises of a share in the life insurance he took out on his intended victim.

Judge McLean overruled all the attorney's objections, entering a notation of a “running objection” on the trial's record.

When Mr. Deeb requested the Court's permission to represent himself, Judge McLean remarked, “That's kind of like doing your own open heart surgery.”