Former Somervell County Attorney Ron Hankins About the Time He Filed Police Charges Against a Letter to the Editor WriterSomervell County Salon-Glen Rose, Rainbow, Nemo, Glass....Texas
Former Somervell County Attorney Ron Hankins About the Time He Filed Police Charges Against a Letter to the Editor Writer
30 November 2019 at 11:54:05 AM
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Ron Hankins was the County Attorney for Somervell County for almost 20 years and then became an elected board member on the Somervell County Hospital District. Back in 2015, Ron Hankins said at an open meeting of the Somervell County Hospital District board that if someone got elected based on an agenda he or she ran on, and got elected, that they should expect to be sued. That seemed to me to be out of line and I wrote a letter to the editor of the Glen Rose Reporter. I wasn't the only one. Unbeknowst to me, a friend of mine also wrote a letter the next week which she did under a pen name with the permission and knowledge of then editor Colleen Horning. Apparently, anyone that criticizes Ron Hankins deserved to have a criminal complaint lodged against them at the Somervell County Sheriff's Department. (I wrote about it at the time in July 2015 after my friend called me up to tell me that I wouldn't believe what had just happened to her). I've always wondered since then why the fool Ron Hankins wanted to see her potentially charged as a criminal simply for exercising freedom of speech to the paper. He was asked about this incident in May 2019.
Hankins was asked "Why would it be against the law to write an anonymous letter to the editor?" He replied ".. I was thinking it was something in connection with possibly trying to disparage me as being a member of the or my outlooks on the board. I mean, got a right to file a complaint. IF it's not illegal it's going to go to someone who says it's not illegal, okay. I was upset, you understand that".
Basic civics classes should have educated Hankins about the freedom of speech and press that we are guaranteed in the US Constitution.
Following is a video of what he said, along with the board meeting in which Hankins made his comments about suing people, letter to the editor, the criminal complaint and a letter my friend J D sent to her friends after he'd sicc'd the police on her. Judge for yourself if you think criticizing a public official warrants such action.