A Gregg County jury found former Mount Pleasant city manager Ed Thatcher, 74, not guilty on Wednesday. The jury deliberated for less than two hours. The trial was held in Gregg County after Thatcher was granted a change of venue from Titus County.
Thatcher was indicted in February 2025 by a Titus County grand jury, along with former Mayor Tracy Craig Sr., former Place 2 Councilwoman Sherri Spruill and former councilmen Galen Adams and Henry Chappell II. The indictment concerned about $40,000 in mileage reimbursements that Adams, Chappell, Craig and Spruill received starting in 2021. Thatcher was city manager at the time and was charged with misapplication of fiduciary or financial property and tampering with a government record.
Reimbursement forms were described as vague, often without specific destinations or purposes listed. Thatcher testified Wednesday that he did not know how some of the forms were completed, according to KLTV. Defense attorney David Moore said, "Sloppy forms are not felonies."