The Quitman City Council met Thursday, Feb. 12 to discuss the Bevill v. City of Quitman, et al. case just eight days after they met to discuss it on Feb. 4.

The case stemmed from what Terry Bevill claimed was a wrongful termination in 2017. Bevill, the former Quitman Police Captain, signed an affidavit that a friend could not get a fair trial in Wood County due to a friendship with several Wood County officials; Bevill was later arrested for perjury and terminated from his position for having signed the affidavit. In 2025, a federal judge awarded Bevill $21.35 million, liable to be paid by the City of Quitman as well as partially by the other four defendants.

The consent agenda for the meeting was approved quickly. Directly following the approval, City Administrator/Secretary Allan Gilbert asked Quitman Mayor Randy Dunn to move executive session to the last item so he “can excuse staff,” which was approved.

Immediately after changing the placement of executive session – which change took place four minutes into the meeting – Dunn asked the city attorney if they could pause, which was also approved. Dunn said he needed to call back what was apparently the mediator in the Bevill case, potentially lawyer Lance Vincent from Tyler. Council member David Dobbs, who is a defendant in the case, said he also got a call from the person.

“It’s kind of an important call,” said Dobbs.

Upon his return, Dunn said that there was no final determination from the phone call. After discussing several other items on the special meeting agenda, such as approving a take-home vehicle policy for the police department and calling for a general election, Dunn asked if they could pause the meeting until 5 p.m., as he said they hoped to receive “a phone call” before then.

Ross suggested they go into executive session instead, which they did. 

Dunn said they were not going to take any action on agenda item 4E, “Discuss and consider action to eliminate Police Position.”

Due to the timing of the Quitman Chamber Banquet, which began at 6 p.m., the meeting was recessed at 5:22 p.m. All members present at the QCC meeting were present at the banquet. According to Gilbert, the meeting reconvened after the banquet, starting at 8:10 p.m. and adjourning at 8:30 p.m.

There was no action after the executive session. Todd Wright was not present at the meeting.

Bevill lawyer Laura Geisler was unavailable for comment. 

The council will meet to discuss the case again on Thursday, Feb. 19. 

Gilbert says the city is “just talking about things, trying to figure out how we can get this done… (trying to figure out) what we can do as a city, and what we can’t do.”