Kaufman County Commissioner Threatened Over Road Conditions
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KAUFMAN COUNTY (CBS11) - Bumpy, muddy roads may have prompted a Kaufman County man to threaten to kill a county commissioner.
Deputies arrested the man Monday, after he allegedly left the voicemail threat over the weekend.
County Commissioner Jimmy Vrzalik said the man threatened to cut Vrzalik's throat, then drag his body through the mud. Vrzalik said he recognized the voice as a man who had previously complained about the condition of the road he lived on.
Vrazlik's assistant was the first to hear the message when she opened the precinct office Monday morning. Sheriff's deputies later arrested Roger Cummings, and charged him with harassment. Jail records Tuesday showed Cummings was no longer in jail.
Two sources said the threat prompted increased security awareness at a county commissioners meeting Monday morning.
The alleged threat happened in Kaufman County where the district attorney, his wife and an assistant prosecutor were murdered in 2013.
"Every employee that was here when Mark (Hasse) and Mike McClelland got murdered, these threats are taken more seriously than they probably were in the past," Vrzalik said.
The commissioner said there were at least nine previous phone calls by the man to his office this year. He said he last spoke to him Thursday for 15 to 20 minutes.
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