Texas Officials Face Trial on Conspiracy to Fire Police Captain

Four government officials in Texas will face trial on whether they conspired to fire a police captain over an affidavit he filed in a criminal case stating that a friend wouldn’t get a fair trial.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for a second time held that qualified immunity didn’t require dismissing the captain’s free speech-based claims. He spoke as a private citizen, and even if his speech may have been partly motivated by a personal relationship, it still addressed the broad public interest in those charged with crimes receiving a fair trial, the Fifth Circuit said. ...