The business partner of the husband of Texas mum Suzanne Clark Simpson, still missing, has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence – two weeks after her husband was jailed for alleged domestic violence.
James Valle Cotter, 65, was arrested at his home Monday on a third-degree count of tampering with evidence with intent to impair an investigation, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced.
Cotter allegedly tried to dispose of a gun for Simpson’s husband, Brad Simpson, that may have been connected to her disappearance on Oct. 6, sources told MySanAntonio.
Cotter is also charged with possession of a prohibited weapon and is being held on $500,000 bond, according to jail records.
Suzanne Clark Simpson, 51, disappeared after she and her husband allegedly got into a fight after she returned home from a party at Argyle, a private club in Alamo Heights.
Just an hour before she disappeared, Simpson allegedly told her mother that Brad had physically abused her.
“She called me and told me the things that Brad had done to her physically,” Simpson’s mother, Barbara Clark, said at a vigil earlier this month.
The violence was “alcohol-related,” Clark suggested.
A neighbor also told police he saw the couple arguing outside their Olmos Park home between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Brad Simpson, 53, was arrested Oct. 9 and charged with assault causing bodily harm – domestic violence and unlawful restraint, both misdemeanors.
He is currently being held on a $2 million bond.
Brad and James Valle Cotter are former business partners, the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed.
Brad was an executive for Cotter & Sons — a holding company run by Cotter’s father, real estate mogul James F. Cotter — from 2007 to 2017, MySanAntonio reported.
Brad and James Valle Cotter were both named as defendants in a civil case over Premier Facilities Solutions, a janitorial company that Brad created with Cotter’s support, the media revealed.
When the other Cotter & Sons executives decided to sell the company to the National Building Service, Brad and Cotter promised to use the buyer’s services exclusively at Cotter & Sons facilities.
However, Cotter & Sons cut ties with NBS, which resulted in a lawsuit. During the proceedings, Cotter & Sons executives accused Brad of bribery – and said the franchise agreement was based on a promise that neither he nor James Valle Cotter were qualified to make.
The legal battle eventually cost Cotter & Sons $1 million in damages and several of its affiliates that Brad Simpson managed filed for bankruptcy, MySanAntonio said.
As of Wednesday morning, the search for Suzanne Clark Simpson remains ongoing.
The same neighbor who witnessed Simpson and her husband arguing also claimed the pair went into the woods, where he heard “two or three screams.”
An hour later, Brad allegedly left the house in his pickup truck and didn’t return for two or three hours, the neighbor said.
Simpson’s mother previously admitted she did not believe her daughter was still alive.
“I don’t think she is because I haven’t heard from her,” the heartbroken mother explained.