You could say this story and the signs in it, all depends on interpretation.

First, the signs.

“Country Connection Club, free food and one free drink for a donation of $2.50 or more.”

And...

“Free food, and two free drinks for a donation of $5 or more.”

And...

“We operate on donations only, any and all donations are appreciated.

Beer and wine license in progress.”

It was true, a TABC said the Country Connection Club had been applying for a license, but it was kicked back to them because of errors in the application, law enforcement officers said.

In the meantime, the club has been operating on “donations.”

At issue here, at least with this club’s operators, and the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission, and the Seven Points Police Department, is what constitutes “a donation?”

Does it mean, a person gives another person an item of monetary value without compensation?

Or does it mean, as club operators believe, that an item of monetary value can be “given” to a person, once he understands he’ll need to pony up a “donation” of $2.50 per beer.

Some people, like the law enforcement people, call such transactions, a sell.

And sales of alcoholic beverages without a license, they say, could be called bootlegging.

So, the TABC and the Seven Points Police Department took one position, which they’ll call “the law,” and a 61-year-old Payne Springs man, James Clovis (Butch) Lawson, took another position, which they might call less than gracious treatment by county lawmen.

For almost 24 hours, Lawson expressed most of his opinions on the subject from a holding cell at Henderson County Jail on Feb. 22.

He was placed under arrest at the club, that afternoon, along with bartender, Jenny Brault-Matthews,

Lawson kept those thoughts in his head long enough to write letters to the editor of area newspapers after posting bail for two bonds that totaled $4,000.

His expressed dissatisfaction with those who cuffed him and made him spend 23 hours and 58 minutes in Henderson County Jail.



The letter:

“Our sign plainly said, “$2.50 Minimum Donation,” not, “Throw a dollar on the bar and get me a beer, like one of the undercover officers did.

Seven Points Police Officer Tim Meadows denied Lawson’s allegation. “Nobody (law enforcement officer of TABC agent) threw a dollar on the counter and ordered a beer,” he said.

The letter continues:

The undercover officers ordered several beers, drank them when they were told very plainly “donations only, minimum $2.50 for food and a drink.

The officers continued to drink beer (several) before they left the building.”

Meadows said two undercover officers drank about three beers each, but he said they paid $2.50 for each of them.

The letter continues:

Within 15 minutes of the undercover officers leaving the building, Seven Points and TABC officers came in and told me and the bartender you are under arrest for selling beer without a license and shut us down.

Meadows said he wasn’t certain about the exact time after the undercover officers left, but he did confirm they returned later and shut the club down.

The letter continues:

There were two tubs of beer iced down. One tub contained beer that belonged to some of the customers in the club that paid a donation to have their beer iced down.

The officers confiscated all the beer.

Meadows confirmed all the beer was confiscated but said none of it was marked with a specific person’s name on it. He said, counting a bottle of champagne and a bottle of vodka, almost empty, there were 501 cans and bottles of alcohol seized.

Instead of giving us a ticket and telling us to shut down, they proceeded to handcuff us and take us to jail like we had just committed a major crime.

Meadows confirmed they were cuffed and taken to jail. and charged with committing criminal offenses.

The letter continues:

A word about the Henderson County Jail.

I would not treat a dog as badly as you treat the inmates. I am 61 years old. I was placed in a room that was extremely cold. I was given one blanket full of giant holes and had to lay on a concrete floor with no pillow and no mattress.

The food was horrible. I had to lay on a concrete floor with no pillow and no mattress.

I asked officers the whole day to give to give me my medications. I was refused three times.

Assistant Chief Deputy Kevin Hanes of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department said he didn’t blame Lawson for not liking the food. “It’s like hospital food, he said. “I wouldn’t like it, either But it is prepared by a dietician.”

But he disagreed with Lawson about the blanket. He said he got one. He said he couldn’t be sure whether it had a hole in it or not.

Sure enough, the place where inmates can sleep in a benches.

The reason the suspects are placed in the holding cell, Hanes said, is because when they are brought in, we have to evaluate them, find out where they’re from and determine whether they have any medical problems.

We want to make sure the persons, if they’re going to be here a while, that they can be cleared to go in into housing with other inmates.

Hanes said their records show that Lawson was given his medication, but he was unsure of the exact time.

The letter continues:

I was sitting on the concrete floor trembling because I did not have my medications. I am a disabled Vietnam Vet, and it is absolutely disturbing how inmates are treated.

Because of this, I now have pain in my thighs, feet, and lower back.

James Butch Lawson