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Holy War in Texas Escalates: Texas clerk Faces Grand Jury for Defending the Pledge, Possible Jail Time and Removal from Office

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Right after the Fourth of July, I broke the story of Natalie Nichols, a newly elected county clerk in Texas, who questioned a rogue court that actually voted to remove the Pledge of Allegiance and an opening prayer from the court's official records. She refused to do it, and made it her official stance. She now faces charges.

After my story ran on July 6 over at WND, Holy War in Texas, Natalie Nichols found herself facing Grand Jury charges and possible prison time.

Natalie's husband told me, "Is this what we are to now expect when we dare take a stand? A public official, no doubt? Retribution for some trumpted-up mess? Prayers, please! Right now, she is alone in this here."

As county clerk, Nichols keeps the minutes of the proceedings of the Commissioners Court, which are held before an audience and begin with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. While Nichols was away attending a county clerk training conference on June 13, the Commissioners Court voted to remove the invocation from the minutes of a previous meeting. Why? Nichols said that County Judge Sterling Lacy told her that he "didn't want some group like the ACLU to come in and sue."

They removed the Pledge from the minutes also.

After my story broke, Judge Sterling Lacy demanded that Bowie County Sheriff James Prince “investigate whether actions by Clerk Natalie Nichols at Monday’s meeting constitute disrupting a public meeting,” the Texarkana Gazette reports. If found guilty, Natalie Nichols could face six months in jail and immediate removal from the office of county clerk.

Red Flame Wire has this:

During a Bowie County Commissioners Court Meeting on July 11, 2011, Lacy addressed the members of the court about the removal of the Pledge and Prayer from court documents, claiming that the minutes that left out “the opening ceremony of devotional, Prayer and pledge,” (the devotional was never an issue until the commissioners court got called to the carpet) prompting Nichols to say “that’s not true….the Pledge and Prayer are most certainly there,” which caused Lacy to try to silence her, resulting in her exasperated comment, “but you’re lying.”

Nichols immediately made a public apology for the interruption, but not for her stance.


However, it was Lacy and three other members of the court who voted to remove the Pledge and Prayer from the records from a June 13th meeting in which Nichols was out of town. Nichols refused to do so.

There is one problem for Lacy, it was caught on tape.

On June 13, 2011, while Nichols was away at training, Judge Lacy and two other members of the Commissioners Court voted to remove the Pledge of Allegiance and the Prayer from the court documents prepared by Nichols, and even went so far as to mark through the items on the official records.

On June 23, Nichols confronted the court about their actions and stood her ground, refusing to remove the Prayer and Pledge from the records. (see video below)

Nichols, who was only informed of the investigation by the local paper, has not been contacted by the Sheriff. This same Sheriff, according to the latest article, has already made the decision to give his future findings to the District Attorney Jerry Rochelle and “request it be sent to a grand jury.”

So two days after being asked to conduct an investigation, the Sheriff already knows they need a grand jury without interviewing Nichols about the incident? For one official calmly interrupting another?

Above photo right: Bowie County Judge Sterling Lacy

Dispute leads to investigation

Officials will see if clerk’s actions were disrupting public meeting
By: Paige Alexander - Texarkana Gazette

NEW BOSTON, Texas—A tense Bowie County Commissioners Court meeting Monday has launched a sheriff’s investigation, initiated by one public official against another.

Sheriff James Prince said County Judge Sterling Lacy asked his office Tuesday to investigate whether actions by Clerk Natalie Nichols at Monday’s meeting constitute disrupting a public meeting.

During Monday’s meeting, Lacy revisited the issue of removing the prayer and pledge from recorded minutes taken by Nichols, prompting her to object to some of Lacy’s statements. At one point, Nichols told Lacy, “You’re lying.”

Lacy told Nichols she was “interrupting the court’s proceedings” and “was out of order” for doing so.

Nichols issued an apology to Lacy later Monday.

When contacted by the Gazette on Wednesday about the sheriff’s investigation, Nichols said, “This is the first I’ve heard about it.”

“I spoke with the sheriff this afternoon (Wednesday) about something else. Nothing came up,” she said.

Nichols acknowledged she did “interrupt a couple of times” during Monday’s meeting, but reiterated she sent Lacy an apology. She also pointed out Prince was present during Monday’s meeting, which makes the investigation seem odd to her.

“(If there had) been some sort of offense, he (Prince) would have taken care of it at that moment.”

In response to questions the Gazette emailed to him, Lacy said, “because there is a current sheriff’s investigation, I cannot comment.”

Prince said there’s no time frame on the investigation, and he didn’t know when Nichols may be interviewed. Once the investigation is complete, the sheriff’s office will give its findings to the district attorney’s office and request it be sent to a grand jury, he said. Prince said copies of an initial report can’t be handed out because the investigation is ongoing.

Disrupting a public meeting is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

A video of the meeting is online at bowiecountyclerk.com/commissioners court.html.