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Texas Official Faces Charges of Secret Grab for Library Control

Some six weeks after Montgomery County, Texas, District Attorney Mike McDougal began investigating whether the county commission chair violated the state’s open-meeting law in his pursuit of enough votes to win control of the county library’s selection responsibilities, McDougal has announced that his office and Alan B. Sadler have reached a confidential settlement.

“I appreciate Mr. McDougal helping me understand the best way all of us elected officials can make sure we don’t run afoul of the law, and I for one intend to follow his advice to the letter,” Montgomery County Commissioners’ Court Judge Sadler said in the October 3 Conroe Courier. By agreeing to abide by McDougal’s undisclosed directive, Sadler avoided grand-jury proceedings, as well as the possibility of being booked into jail had he been indicted.

In July, county commission member Ed Rinehart publicly accused Sadler of trying to secure his support for a library policy change that would have given the county commission the final say on materials selection and removal for the Montgomery County Memorial Library System, as well as canceling the system’s membership in the American Library Association. At the time, Sadler dropped the latter issue when library Director Jerilynn A. Williams revealed that the library’s ALA membership lapsed in 2000. 

Posted October 13, 2003.

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