A veteran prosecutor of the Wood County district attorney’s office has been removed as an assistant district attorney. 

Prosecutor Joey Fenlaw claims he did not resign his position, but District Attorney Angela Albers says he gave a verbal two-week notice she claims he gave in her office April 6 at 8:50 a.m.

Fenlaw removed things from his office in anticipation of leaving, but still said he had not resigned but he was removed from the office and asked to return all county property.

Prior to the April 6 confrontation, things got heated after Fenlaw was asked to write and handle an appeal on the Timothy Parmer case.

“I have worked at the Wood County DA’s Office since 2009, right out of law school and have never written appeals for our office,” Fenlaw noted. “Likewise, District Attorney Angela Albers has worked with our office since early 2007 and has been DA since early 2019 and she has never written appeals for our office. I do not believe she has ever written an appeal at her prior job either.”

Fenlaw said he was instructed to do the appeal by first assistant Brandon Baade.

Fenlaw objected but was told he had to do it and had no choice in the matter.

“Simply put, I am a trial lawyer. I have never been asked to do appeals. Some lawyers are appellate lawyers and don’t do trials. Some do both,” Fenlaw said. “I simply do not have time to try and tackle an appeal for the very first time with such a heavy workload. I had jury trials, grand jury presentations, witness interviews and the list goes on.”

Fenlaw said, “I told Ms. Albers I was not resigning or giving her a two-week notice. I was giving her notice that I was looking for another job as a prosecutor in another county and once I found that job, I would give my notice and be leaving the Wood County DA’s office. I also told Ms. Albers that once I secured that job, I would be moving into Wood County to establish residency and planned on running against her in the next election for Wood County district attorney.”

According to Fenlaw, Albers responded by saying, “Are you threatening me?” I (Fenlaw) told her, “Of course I was not threatening her, I was just telling her about what my plans were. She never allowed or even asked me about the issue of the appeal, which is what I had originally wanted to be the main topic of our discussion.”

Fenlaw was at home sick on April 7 when he was served a letter addressed to him from Albers which claimed he had resigned verbally from the Wood County district attorney’s office the day before and that she was accepting his resignation effective April 7. 

In the letter Albers stated, “After your verbal resignation, you began to remove items from your office and removed most of your personal belongings. Please make arrangements with Investigator Jerry Hirsch to return any county property you have either in your possession or at another location.”

“I have not resigned from the Wood County District Attorney’s Office. I want to make it crystal clear I did not resign on April 6, 2022. I did not quit on April 6,” Fenlaw added. “I have never at any time resigned or quit my position as assistant district attorney in Wood County, a position I have had for 13 years. I am sorry and disappointed that it has come down to a district attorney named Angela Albers who is trying to end my career and soil my name in Wood County.”

Albers was contacted for this story. “I’m not going to make any comments at this time about personnel matters. It has not even come before commissioners court yet,” Albers said.