The Ellis County Press: Recordings contradict councilman

Recordings contradict councilman
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Megan Gray on 10/20/2011 11:42:00


FERRIS – Recently released audio tapes of Councilman Gary Ross, after being
involved in an accident during the annual 9/11 memorial tribute on Malloy Bridge
Road Sunday, Sept. 11, contradicts Ross’ earlier statements made to The Ellis
County Press.
The accident involved Ross backing a fire truck he was driving into another
truck damaging a bumper and bruising a little girl.
When The Ellis County Press contacted Ross for comment, he declined, saying, “
I don’t understand why y’all are making such a big deal out of it[the
accident].”
Phone calls are transcribed below:
Officer Ernesto Fierro and Gary Ross Sunday, Sept. 11
Officer: Hey Gary, Hey how you doing man, you alright??
Ross: Yeah, I am fine this sucks.
Officer: Yeah, I know man.
Ross: Swing by there, you gonna be around tomo or somebody?
Officer: Yeah, I will be here.
Officer: We had to get county to come out here to do this accident thing, and
all I need is your DL number.
Ross: Okay, you ready?
Officer: Yes, sir.
Officer: Sleep man, they didn’t give us an ETA when they are gonna get out
here so I figure maybe I an hour or two, I don’t think they will need you to
come out but if they do I will give you a call.
Ross: I’ll prob be out by then.
Officer: I’m sorry Gary, it’s an accident man, it happens man.
Ross: Yeah, but really the bad thing is, they will be checking out that I really
shouldn’t be driving, I don’t have a class C or Class B exempt. Or C isn’t
it? Whichever it is. So, S**t.
Officer: Oh okay.
Officer: It’s alright Gary man.
Officer: Just try to get some sleep and if county is gonna require you t o come
out I will give you a call.
Officer: Alright man, get some sleep man. Thanks bye.
New call: Sunday, Sept. 11 between Ross and Fierro
Dispatch : Ferris Police Department
Ross: Hey can I speak to Fierro?
Ferrio: Hello
Ross: Hey it’s Gary.
Officer: Hey Gary, what’s up man?
Ross: I was just thinking man, you know the newspaper will make a big deal out
of it. Hopefully it’s just an accident report and we will turn it into
history.
Officer: Yeah that’s it. That’s all, that’s gonna happen it just happened
to happen in Dallas county.
Ross: Right.
Officer: No, that’s all…that’s gonna happen Gary don’t worry about it.
It’s just an accident.
Ross: Otherwise if they get a hold of it they will make a big deal out of it.
Officer: No man, no big deal Gary. As far as I know it’s not.
Ross: It sucks.
Officer: I know, man I know. I mean y’all were out there doing something great
and uh, it was just an accident Gary. Don’t lose any sleep over it.
Ross: Yeah but, the only thing that bothers me like I said was I don’t, I used
to have but I let it go, what’s it a Class C?
Officer: Yeah.
Ross: B exempt…
Officer: Yeah B exempt
Ross: So, I just don’t want the newspaper to get a hold of this. All we need
is the accident report and we will get it to our insurance.
Officer: Yeah that’s it. We aren’t calling nobody, but Dallas County just
gotta come out here and do it and that’s it.
Ross: Alright.
Officer: so, we aren’t calling anybody.
Ross: Here’s my story….my foot slipped. I had these thongs on and my foot
slipped off the brake and roll back.
Officer: yeah, yeah.
Ross: Before I could stop it, it bumped into him.
Officer: Right.
Ross: All it did was pretty much bend his bumper.
Officer: That’s all Gary, don’t worry about it.
Ross: Alright man.
Officer: I’ll let you uhh.., I don’t work tomorrow but, I’ll get up
around, I get up after 2 o’clock if you want to give me a call like at 3 or 4
tomorrow if you still want to know what’s up or if you…heard anything
different.
Ross: I got your number in my phone somewhere but my sim card got screwed up so
if you wanna text it to me if you don’t mind.
Officer: Okay, I’ll try to holler at you tomorrow then when I get up. So how
you’re doing.
Ross: I’m ain’t worry about that, I’m just worried about, you know, the
damn paper more than anything else.
Officer: No man, I don’t think, well…it’s not gonna come from us I can
tell ya that. It’s not gonna come from us. I’ll tell you that right now.
Ross: If you just said…[inaudible] the accident report.
Ross: Yeah, that’s all it is.
Ross: [inaudible] if they get a hold of it, they will blow it up.
Officer: Like I said, it not gonna come from us. (laughs)
Ross: Alright man.
Officer: Well, I don’t know if you knew but, Eddie Duran called the city
manager.
Ross: okay.
Officer: So, I don’t know if you are aware of that.
Ross: No, it’s fine.
Officer: And of course we had to call our chief cause I thought we could go
ahead and just do it since it was just vehicle to vehicle and nothing else but
he [ Chief Sam Love] said no…it happened in Dallas County gotta do it right.
So, he wanted us to give Dallas County a call to come and do it.
Ross: Alright man.
Officer: Okay Gary, get some sleep bro.
Ross: Alright [laughs]
Officer: Alright talk to you later, bye.