COOPER, Texas — Delta County is almost hidden between Paris and Commerce in northeast Texas.
The population of the entire county is just a little more than 5,000.
It's where Patrick Taylor was living in September 2019 when he pulled into his driveway and was approached by a Delta County sheriff's deputy.
"This guy comes up and says, 'Why are you running from me?'" Taylor said.
"I’m not running from anybody,” Taylor told him.
The deputy, Zach Williamson, then wrestled Taylor to the ground and took him to jail for allegedly driving while intoxicated.
Taylor said a blood-alcohol test was administered two years ago, but the results remain a mystery.
“I’ve never seen any evidence or anything,” he said.
Taylor and much of the county would soon discover that this arrest never should have happened.
It is now at this center of a federal lawsuit against Delta County Judge Jason Murray, the county attorney, Jay Garrett, and the sheriff at the time, Ricky Smith.
Taylor said not only was he charged, but he was jailed for six months over a case they could not prosecute.
Turns out, that deputy, Zach Williamson, should not have been wearing a badge at the time.
Records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement showed that Williamson was not a licensed peace officer when he arrested Taylor.
Williamson’s license expired Sept. 1, 2019.
He arrested Taylor the following month, on Oct. 18.
And Williamson did not get his license back until several weeks later, on Nov. 6, 2019.
For 66 days, Williamson could not legally act as a cop, but he still made a number of arrests for Delta County.
“You would think that the people who are tasked with enforcing the rules would at least follow the rules," civil rights attorney David Henderson said. "That would involve making sure the person has the authority to do that. So how this deputy got hired without first confirming that he is licensed to be a certified peace officer in the state of Texas is completely beyond me."
In a sworn affidavit in the federal lawsuit, a Texas state trooper said he warned county officials about Williamson.
“I was extremely concerned that Officer Williamson was allowed by Delta County to continue to arrest members of the public and issue citations without a valid Peace Officer License," trooper Archie Crittenden wrote.
Crittenden said he alerted the county judge, Jason Murray, and the county attorney, Jay Garrett, back in November 2019, and he recommended that they drop all the charges.
Within a few weeks, everyone in town was talking about what happened. So Shannon McCulloch, the justice of the peace at the time – Delta County is so small it only has one – decided she was going to do what she could to help those wrongfully charged.
She had her staff call more than 60 people who were charged by Williamson and tell them their cases were going to be dismissed.
But another judge denied the release of Taylor. And instead, he was sent to rehab. The reason why remains uncertain.
The attorney representing Delta County’s top officials sent a statement after WFAA's requests to interview them.
“Because we have a policy of not commenting on pending litigation, neither we nor our clients will be discussing this litigation outside of the pleadings filed with the Court," the statement said.
In their blanket denial filed in court, Delta County wrote that “all of their alleged acts or omissions were made in good faith and were objectively reasonable…,” adding that nothing was done “maliciously, intentionally, with callous or deliberate indifference, knowingly, negligently, or with any other degree of culpability.”
If that’s so, Taylor and his attorneys ask, why did it take Delta County two years to drop his charges when they knew at the time of the arrest that this case could not be prosecuted?
“The simple truth is people did not do their jobs – not the way they were supposed to," Henderson said. "And I say that because a prosecutor, for example, has a job to make sure that justice is served."
Williamson no longer works in law enforcement in Delta County.
It is uncertain why the sheriff’s office did not confirm whether Williamson had a valid peace officer license, which experts say is standard practice, before giving him a badge, gun and vehicle.
Taylor got a little emotional while discussing how the six months of incarceration over this situation has changed his life.
He was asked if it has it frayed relationships.
“Yep,” he said.
Taylor lost his home and his job and said he had to leave Delta County after getting released.
“Pretty much everything," he said. "I’m having to start all over.”
But Taylor still wants his record expunged and those responsible to be held accountable.
That's why he is asking a federal court to now untangle a big mess created in a small town.
The case is set for trial next February.