By Christopher Collins of the Times Record News

A Wichita Falls man jailed Tuesday for allegedly making a parody Facebook account of a city towing contractor says he "wasn't trying to impersonate nobody."

Thomas Cecil Sims, 49, was jailed on one charge of online impersonation — a felony offense — for reportedly creating an account mocking Jody Wade, who has an exclusive contract with the city of Wichita Falls to conduct its towing and impounding operations.

According to an arrest affidavit, Sims created a Facebook page for "Joe Deep Wade," making its profile picture one of Wade's mugshots. The contractor has been arrested several times for alcohol-related offenses.

Wade reportedly received a friend request on his actual Facebook account from the parody account and made a report to the Wichita Falls Police Department. He told police that several of his friends had received requests from the fake account also, the affidavit says.

"If I was trying to impersonate him, why would I send him a notice?" Sims told the Times Record News. "I wasn't trying to impersonate nobody."

The Texas legal statute regarding online impersonation is outlined in Chapter 33 of the state's penal code. It defines the offense as being committed "if the person, without obtaining the other person's consent and with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person, uses the name or persona of another person to:

(1) create a web page on a commercial social networking site or other Internet website; or

(2) post or send one or more messages on or through a commercial social networking site or other Internet website, other than on or through an electronic mail program or message board program."

Sims initially was booked into Wichita County Jail but has since been released.

The man said he was known Wade for a "long, long" time from being in the towing business. He admitted the two have had their differences, including "little spats on Facebook."

Along with using Wade's county jail mugshot as a profile picture, the Joe Deep Wade account also featured a 2013 Times Record News article about one of the man's alcohol-related arrests.

Sims said that when a police investigator contacted him late last year about the online impersonation charge, he thought it was a "practical joke."

"But after he asked more and more questions, I said, 'I don't think my lawyer wouldn't want me talking to you at all.'" he said.

In the affidavit, an investigator characterized Sims' response as a statement that Sims had seen something about the Facebook account and "may have even talked about it."

In the newspaper interview, Sims said he didn't know creating a parody social media account is a crime.

"I wouldn't think so. Obviously I didn't think it was or I wouldn't have done it in the first place," he said.

Wade told the Times Record News he did not want to give a comment for this story because of the ongoing investigation.