Multiple Indictments Returned in State Game Warden Hostage Case
Jan. 25, 2013
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AUSTIN – An Upshur County grand jury has returned multiple felony indictments, including two first degree counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, naming a father and son accused of holding a state game warden at gunpoint last October.
All the indictments stem from an Oct. 6 incident in which Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Warden Shane Bailey was disarmed and detained by two armed men while the officer was making a routine check for hunting law violations on private property in Upshur County.
The warden used his cell phone to call for help, and soon numerous local and state officers came to his assistance and ended the situation with no shots fired.
Lloyd Allen Crabtree, 51, a former county commissioner in Upshur County, was named in five felony indictments, including three counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer (first degree felony); one count of taking a weapon from a peace officer (third degree felony) and one count of unlawful restraint with a deadly weapon (third degree felony).
Crabtree’s son, Todd A. Crabtree, 28, was indicted on three felony charges: One count of aggravated assault on a peace officer (first degree felony); one count of taking a weapon from a peace officer (third degree felony); and one count of unlawful restraint with a deadly weapon (third degree felony).
The attorney for the two men notified them Friday afternoon that arrests warrants had been issued and they turned themselves in at the Upshur County Jail a short time later. They remained in jail Friday night in lieu of $1.5 million bond each.
The incident last fall was investigated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Internal Affairs Unit and the Texas Rangers.
“We really appreciate the hard work on the part of our Internal Affairs officers, the Texas Rangers and Upshur County District Attorney’s Office that went into this investigation,” said Col. Craig Hunter, TPWD’s Law Enforcement Division director. “While this case still has to make its way through the judicial process, we hope these indictments will send a strong message that incidents such as this one will not be tolerated by law-abiding Texans.”