07/20/2022
Do not be a victim of theft in Denton County if you want to see justice. Our nightmare started in July of 2017. Jeffrey Allen Walker was working for Southwest Equipment in Lewisville, Texas and had been there for about 17 years. The owner of the company Russ Bradshaw had treated him as though he was one of his own kids, he was about 19 years old when he went to work for him. Russ watched Jeffs kids grow up. He received many bonuses throughout the years as well as given cash money at times. Along with all this Russ in trusted him to manage the company.
January 20,2016 Russ retired closing the Odessa office, but still had the Lewisville office, Jeff Walker was to take care of with any decisions to go thru Russ, first. Russ trusted Jeff Walker even when I would question him about somethings, he trusted him. That is just the man Russ is, kind and very giving to all. But do not steal from him.
In December of 2016, a call was made to crime stoppers about Jeff Walker selling items that belonged to the company with out the knowledge of the owner. Russ talked to the crime stopper and Jeff Walker, which Jeff said it was an unhappy employee that he had fired. Which now we know why he was fired because he told Jeff he was going to call Russ. Now we know several employees were fired if they stood up to Jeff Walker in his wrong doings.
The nightmare began around April 2017, when the economy took a downturn for the company. Russ told Jeff Walker do not spend anything that does not need to be spent. By June 2017 things still were not changing much, so Russ made a trip to Lewisville, see what was going on. At that time, he found vehicles not belonging to the company in the yard and being painted. Russ exact works to Jeff Walker “This is not being done on my dime is it.” Jeff Walker said no, this on the weekend and they were paying the employee out of their pocket. (NOT TRUE these were Jeff Walker’s friends’ stuff) Russ question him about the cameras in the back not working and was told it would be very costly to repair them (again not true found they had been disconnected guess who).
June 2017, the research began, unbelievable items stolen by Jeff Walker, all charged to company trucks, stolen property taken to Jeff Walkers deer lease, employees made to work on his mud car to the tune of $16K, built a cooker tailer to the tune of $30K, repainted the inside of his house twice, but to add humor the one that got us the most was tiki torches on a bucket truck. Oh yes, he was good at hiding it no receipts just charge it to a truck. Little did he know we found the receipts, requested receipts and your caught. By August Russ knew what he had to do, so on August 5, 2017, we headed to Lewisville, to work in the office and continue gathering information. August 4, 2017, Jeff Walker knowing Russ was on his way loaded up a gooseneck trailer with box container taken off one of the company’s trucks, which he had made into a camp house for his deer lease, takes off to his deer lease to remove any evidence on the property along with an employee.
On August 5, 2017, Russ knew what he had to do, but first we had to get the police involved, biggest problem Jeffs wife worked for Lewisville Police Department. Russ called a friend in the Denton County DA office who met with us away from the office for advice on how to report it. They called a detective who then met with Russ and gave us advise on how to collect all the evidence, to make sure everything was in place before Russ fired Jeff. Russ wanted to make sure Jeff did not have time to change anything on the computers, phones or try and cover anything that we had in motion.
The morning August 30, 2017, Jeffrey Allen Walker was fired for theft. His reaction was and I quote “You are over re-acting.” Russ made him leave all credit cards, keys, phones, and anything else that was in the yard, he left with his personal truck and that was it.
In October 2017, with thousands of documents, pictures, receipts and items were turned over to Lewisville Detective Brad Kenny, who was a wonderful help to us. Brad Kenny worked hard on this case found items on Jeff Walkers deer lease, returned some items from there, but it was still theft. Total of the items that were turned into them was over $104K. Russ felt that was enough to get a Felon and it was time to let the company employee and himself heal from this and get the company back on its feet. As the years have passed, we have found even more that was stolen.
March 24, 2018, Jeffry Allen Walker was indicted for Felon Theft, Russ called Brad to ask when they would arrest him, Brad said he was told not to arrest him till after spring break because of his kids, REALLY. Jeffrey Allen Walker turned himself in on March 28, 2018, bond was set at $5,000, he never spent one day in jail.
The first Court Setting was September 28, 2018, Canceled, one of many. (Oct.04, Nov.16, 2018 canceled), Jan 17, Feb 21, March7, Oct 17, Oct 28, 2019 canceled,)( March 3, April2, April 13, Aug 13, Aug 24, 2020 canceled,)( Jan 14 transferred to different court, May 10, June 9 motion for continuance (really his attorney not ready) June 22, June 21 continuance granted.2021,)( Jan 14 canceled, May 27, 2022 Docket call) Eight or more times we have seen this case canceled. We also went through several attorneys and investigators in the Denton County DA officed during this time.
On May 26, 2022, Jesse Eyer called 20 minutes before five and talked a total of 13 minutes to Russ to tell him, they were going to offer Jeffrey Walker 2 years Misdemeanor probation and $62,000 restitution. First problem is Jesse Eyer has not spoken to Russ before, Russ has talked to two other attorneys in Denton County DA office, and both told us we had a great case. Now this guy says he did not want him to walk, WHAT. Jesse Eyer also told Russ he would call back once they had taken the offer, which did not happen. Russ called a number of times leaving messages for both Jesse and the investigator. Finally on July 6, 2022, we met Jesse Eyer face to face he could not tell Russ one item that Jeff stole from him, tell me he even looked at this case, the only attorney to tell us he might walk. This is the DA to have if you steal for sure.
Jesse Eyer please be informed of the following:
Theft is a felony of the third degree if:
the value of the stolen property or services is $30,000 or more but less than $150,000 (We received a check in the amount of $62,000, yelp that is a felony.)
Enhanced Theft Penalties
The penalty for a theft offense increases to the next offense level (for example, a third-degree felony goes up to second-degree felony) if any of the following are true: the owner of the property was a person age 65 or older. (Russ is over 65 years old, yelp should have been enhanced)
Those we want to thank are Det. Brad Kenny for all your help, recovering some of our property, helping us turn in the best case with all documents in order. Thank you to Jesse Davis, Barrett Doran, and Rodney Bolin from the Denton County District Attorney’s office for spending time on this case getting more information, talking to our employees, and encouraging us to hold on during the tough times. I am just sorry that your DA Office in Denton County has an employee that had no compassion nor clue about this case, and he (Jesse Eyer) let him walk with a slap on the wrist.
Thank you to all our employees that helped us thru the last five years. Also thank you to the suppliers that helped us.
It is a sad day for all those who believed in the judicial system to work, and it did not. Jeff Walker will have to pay the price come judgement day, for everything you have put Russ through. The bad part is he still thinks he has done nothing wrong. Jeffrey Allen Walker, you can no longer take up any of our time or emotions.
A West Texas Sherriff wrote this “How about instead of punishing hard-working LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS, let’s start punishing criminals to the extent that some might have fear of the Consequences!!!”
Now we understand why officers have the feeling their jobs are repetitive arrest the same ones over and over again.
It Is time to move on now to the retirement Russ worked so hard for.
Thank you to all employees, vendors and customers for the years.
