Gag Order Issued in Sex Trial of Former Deputy, Wife

MARSHALL — Former Harrison County sheriff’s deputy Huey “Eddie” Nichols Jr. and his wife, Sharon — a former deputy county clerk — will go on trial in July on charges of sexual indecency with a child. KETK and the Longview News-Journal report the pair were first arrested in 2011 for the alleged sex crimes against children. A gag order was issued in the cases, silencing prosecutors and defense attorneys from talking about the case. 188th District Judge David Brabham will serve as presiding judge after 71st District Judge Brad Morin recused himself. Eddie Nichols’ trial has been set July 8. Sharon Nichols is scheduled to go on trial the week of July 22. Morin recused himself saying he once represented Sharon Nichols’s ex-husband in a custody battle.

The couple was first arrested in September 2011 on two charges of sexual indecency with a child by contact. Nichols was arrested again that December on a third charge of sexual indecency with a child. His last arrest Feb. 16, 2012, was for two additional charges — sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. He bonded out of jail a few days later on Feb. 24, according to jail records. Prosecutors allege the victims in Nichols’ first arrest were two girls, ages 14 and 11 at the time the case was reported. In his third charge, Nichols is accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl from January 2002 to March 2003. Nichols was fired from the sheriff’s office following the investigation in the first case, and Sharon Nichols was fired from her position as deputy county clerk a few days later.