The Case of Perjury & Power | Johnson County Sheriff on Trial | Signal 51 Chronicles

This is the signal fifty one chronicles. I'm John Henry. To my left here is my compadre, retired sergeant, the fourth Police Department, Jake White. Hello. You're looking good. Looking good after a long night, Jen. Had a long night last night. Played Rush. Played Rush. At Dickies, at the great Dickies Arena. Okay. Good. I'm glad that one went away. Let me move over. Just when I thought I can get comfortable. That voice over there is the wonderful Ashley, our producer extraordinaire. We yes. Absolutely. We broadcast here from an undisclosed location in Fort Worth, Texas on Fort Worth, Texas' West Side. We come to you from the platform of Sunset Lounge DFW. Catch all their stuff. They've got how many how many shows they got going now, Ashley? Eight shows led by the great Mike Reiner. Your dark companion is what that one's called. Now you can hear that wind. Mondays and Wednesdays. So Ashley, Jake, is a former soccer player. Yes. We've heard. Good see you. We've heard. Goalie, I think. Right? Yeah. Ashley, are you so I get Jake is always talking about his English Premier League team. Always. Jake. I don't know one thing about soccer. Oh, he's a he's a No. I really don't. I He's always he's always calling me us. You know, he's got his English Premier League team. Very bougie. Got my English Premier League team. No. I'm unsophisticated because I don't have exactly. So anyway, Jake, tell me about the world your World Cup experience. I watched I did watch the game last night. Norway and England? No. No. Argentina and Switzerland. Yeah. Yeah. Watch that. I don't know what's going on. My interest wanes very quickly in the middle of those games, man. You're not exactly you have adult ADD. Yes. One hundred percent. I'd say a relatively well, a severe case of it. But that's okay. I function with it. What have you thought of what what what what have been your impressions of the World Cup? Messi, is Messi the greatest? I don't know. It doesn't move the needle for me. Look, I'm not saying it's a bad sport. I just don't know it. You have to realize my growing up in the Midwest, I don't recall soccer being the go to sport. Yeah. So we would play Wait. Your your parents didn't send you out there just to burn some energy and all that? No. Yeah. We we would, but not send you out there. It was send you into the gym. And you know those mats that are on each side under the basketball goals? Mhmm. They would just tape a box on there. Yeah. That was our version of soccer. Like, it wasn't outdoors. It was very I mean, it's low budge generic, dude. It was bad. And then we're talking about Saint Joe. Yeah. Yeah. Missouri. Yeah. Did you guys have running water there? We had running water there. Bathrooms? Yes. We had all of that. Inside the house? Yes. Yes. It was wasn't that bad. It was a great place back in the day, I thought. I'm sure it is. Well, I don't know if it is now, but it was. I've watched a little bit of the soccer. Now I've gone down to Sundance Square, went down there for the Mexico game. A lot of people down there. 8,000 people, they say. Oh, really? I didn't know it was that bit. I just saw the overhead, like, aerial shots. It was a lot of fun. It looked cool. They had a salsa band out there and I think some dancers, and they were they were having a lot of fun out there. They won. Did you see the Mexico, England? Was that England they played? Yeah. Last weekend? Pretty good stuff. No, was in a very, very remote place last Yeah. We'll talk about that later. Talk about bougie. There was no Wi Fi. How bougie can it be? The what? There was no Wi Fi. My phone didn't work. No Wi Fi. I think you said no Wi Fi. I'm like, where was she? No Wi Fi. Okay. You told me when we were prepping for this show that you've sold some houses down in Johnson County recently. I have. If you don't know, Jake's a realtor. Yes. Indeed. And he sold some houses outside the loop. A lot outside of the loop, actually. That's where most of them seem to be. Down south. Down south, out west, up north. I don't go out east too often. When you were down there, did you happen to stop by the courthouse recently? Was there was there anything abut was anything buzzing around the I actually did drive by the courthouse in the midst of all of this, it was a little busier than normal right there in the Cleburne. Yeah, it's like the old high school. Yeah. Yeah. The old high school. Yeah. I speak of that because just concluded down there in Cleburne, Texas, the county seat of Johnson County was the very salacious trial of the sheriff, Adam King, who was first elected sheriff in 2016. I think that he replaced the legend. We can talk about that in a minute. And he's won reelection twice. Yep. Building a reputation, of course, as this aggressive lawman because you that's what you have to be as a sheriff. You know that. As do you. You've gotta be, you know, big, strong, tough guy to be a sheriff and Larger than life personality. Yes. Yes. Indeed. Even though I don't know that Adam King's got a larger than life person. I don't know either. Anyway, this this image of his, whatever image he had unraveled in the summer of twenty twenty five after female employees complained of repeated inappropriate comments and conduct inside the sheriff's office. County officials referred this matter to the Texas Rangers to avoid the appearance of any local influence in Cleburne Johnson County's, you know, they've got a reputation, maybe not deserved. I don't know. Being tight. K. So the Rangers investigation alleged that the sheriff repeatedly made sexually suggestive comments to female employees, commented on their appearance, requested private meetings behind closed doors, and in one instance allegedly told an employee she would have to disrobe before paperwork would be signed. Another employee alleged that he told her that if she continued losing weight, she would make him, quote, do ungodly things. You were told anybody that? No. I have never You've never told There's never been a scenario in my life where that has happened. I actually don't know the mindset to pull something like that off. I don't know I I I can't Well wrap my mind around that. Now we have to keep in mind that the sheriff has repeatedly denied all this stuff. Sure. Could have swore I saw you say that to somebody once. You do understand. You know, know, Oh, God. There's no way. I'm you on the other hand. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's get back to the show. Let's get back on topic here. Where we going with this? So the well, I'm I'm I'm leading into this case. Okay. So the investigation expanded beyond alleged harassment. Prosecutors contended that after employees reported concerns, the sheriff retaliated against then chief deputy, James Salter, who had cooperated with investigators. Those retaliation allegations ultimately became the centerpiece of this criminal case whose trial concluded last week. Prosecutors argued King abused the power of his office to punish a whistleblower, the chief deputy. The defense argued the personnel actions were legitimate and portrayed the case as the product of internal politics in an effort by these jealous rivals within the department to remove the sheriff. So King was ultimately indicted on felony retaliation charges and a misdemeanor official oppression charge tied to the harassment allegations. He later faced an aggravated perjury indictment related to grand jury testimony, although the retaliation case reached trial first. So this trial held in Cleburne, of course, featured testimony from current and former sheriff's employees, rangers investigators, and county officials. It included several dramatic moments centered on recorded conversations and conflicting testimony over who was telling the truth about the internal investigation. We had a he said, she said situation. Despite prosecutors resting after two weeks of testimony, the defense chose not to call any witnesses, not even the sheriff himself. They clearly didn't think the prosecution proven its case. And after roughly two days of deliberations last week, the jury reported that it was hopelessly deadlocked even after receiving a charge from the judge to continue deliberations. But jurors remained divided with one juror refusing to change his or her position. And with that, the judge declared a mistrial on Wednesday, I believe, July 7. And prosecutors now are weighing whether to retry the case. So joining us Jake is a man and a long time reporter of the Cleveland Times Review, Matt Smith, who covered this trial. Matt, you cover county and civic affairs, right? Yes, and everything in between, yes. Of course, everything in between. When you work at the Cleveland Times, you cover everything. I worked there for a spell myself. That's where I met Matt Smith. Matt also does music reviews. Nice. Occasionally. Okay. We were talking about music earlier. We have some similar We have some upcoming concerts and so forth. Heard y'all talking about the clash. Clash, yeah. Well, Peter Hook and the light and kind of touching on some of the Never heard of that in my life. Missing out good stuff. Yeah, it's good stuff. You've never heard of the clash? No, the clash, not Peter Light. Peter Peter Hook. Peter Hook. New Order. Oh, oh yeah? Okay, know New Order. Yeah. Why are you on my ass today? I don't know. I don't stand it. You showed up late. I was hoping. I was hoping. I was like, oh, man. When he shows up, it's gonna be just dragging ass. But no, you're not. You're you're on your a game today. Sort of. I I'm impressed. Alright, Matt. Let's get to this. Yeah. So for people who only saw the headlines or even some who didn't, yeah, I'm very, a couple. What was this case really about? Is it fundamentally a sexual harassment case, retaliation case, or a story about leadership inside the sheriff's office? I'm thinking it depends on who you're asking because for some of the players in there it's sort of a divided sheriff's office and the internal culture of the office. But I think at the heart of it is Anna Goodlow. And when you get down to her allegations, whether you want to believe them or not, she's the one who was potentially victimized here. And so I've been thinking of, and I've talked to her some, but not a whole lot since this trial is started and ran its course, but kind of what's going through her head because she's seen this, which would have been hard enough to go through this and then go to Salter and tell him, hey, this is happening. But then to see this sort of turn into a year long sideshow circus that has become with the trial and the pretrial and the the pro Adam groups that are holding their prayer vigils and the, you know, support the victims groups that are out there in front of the courthouse up to this. So I'm thinking it comes down to one person really. And of course, Salter and the others that were allegedly retaliated against too. But she's the one who's the and any of the other female victims, but she's the one that they specifically have gone with in this trial so far. And she's Anna Goodlow was the employee. She's the training coordinator with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, and, her husband may get to that in a little bit, is Dan Milam. He's the IT Director for Johnson County, because there's a component of that that ties in. So is Goodlow, is she a deputy or is she a civilian employee? No, no, she's a deputy. She's, well they call her Doctor. Anna Goodlow, but she's also a, I don't know exactly what her rank is other than training coordinator, but she is law enforcement and she's been there for quite a while and she's handled other duties I'm sure, but she's sort of there. They have ongoing training and so forth and different programs. And I think she kind of coordinates a lot of that stuff for them. And she had been in the office and with COVID, she was able to work from home some and office some, I'm thinking, and that's sort of one of the allegations that Adam brought her back to the office. People are saying so that he would be able to see her and keep tabs on her and and intimidate her. Anyway, we can get into those in a bit, but Just and for context, how do you know how big the sheriff's office is down there? I mean, how many deputies? Yeah, that's I knew that and now that you asked me, can't remember. I know Cleburn PD has about 50 officers or so, so I think the sheriff's office has 100, 120 deputies, something, and that could be completely off, but I think that sounds right as I can recall. Okay. And Adam King succeeded Bob? Alford. Bob Alford. Yeah, Sheriff Bob, yeah. Who was there for how long? Twenty some years. Twenty some odd years. He was kind of a legend, if you will. Yeah. I mean, was actually on Conan O'Brien one day, Yeah, they did a segment out there at the sheriff's office. What, what, what, what? Oh man. You can look it up on YouTube. Conan came out there and it's like he's going through deputy training and it's just comical Oh, it's good. It's worth looking at. Yeah, it's definitely worth watching. Oh, it's funny. I wonder how he chose Johnson County. He was doing like a tour across The US and was out in Dallas. I mean, if gonna cover a Texas sheriff Bob offered Yes. Some Yeah. So King, give us a little background on King. He was a PD, wasn't he, or was he in the sheriff's office? Yeah, I think he came up through DPS. I think he was in the drug task force before that. Did a story on him years ago as far as his life, and I'm trying to remember details because that's ten, fifteen years ago. But yeah, he's been sheriff for twenty some years. He's since, still see him around, still run into him pretty often, but, him and Adam, not so much get along there. Who's that done? Adam King and him, because And who? Offer. Oh, Offer, okay. Because when Offer decided not to run again, he supported one of his chief deputies that also ran against Adam Salter, Adam, and the other guy was, I want to say, Mark White. So Salter ran, did Salter run against Yeah, Salter lives in Johnson County, he had worked in law enforcement for years, but he'd been out in Hood County, think, so he didn't work in Johnson County, which was kind of a surprise when he jumped in the sheriff's race because nobody really knew him locally because he was over there. Everybody knew Adam because he had been on the drug task force forever, and Wyatt would have been with the sheriff's office with Sheriff Alford forever, so. But and when they went to a runoff between White and Adam King, Salter was the odd man out, and that's King Was that in '16 or in '16. '16. Yeah. Yeah. And then King Salter liked each other, so King brought Salter on board when he won the election. Anyway, Sheriff Bob, back to that, since then he's done a lot of film work. He does help set up with the Taylor Sheridan shows and He's helped, I think, set up some stuff and some other local stuff that gets filmed. He'd be ideal for? He does some stuff, yeah, and he supplies horses and he supplies, you know, things like that, but he's had some, I think, some little roles here and there. So, yeah. So what, so during this trial, I heard the allegation that, I guess from King even, King's defense that this is all an effort to remove him from office. Discredit and remove him, yeah. What do you think of that allegation? I mean, they made a lot of allegations. They didn't offer any solid or hard evidence to it. You had all these competing theories of that. You had that Salter was always gunning for the job, which King's term's up in 2028, so it was kind of, if Salter wanted to run, he could've just waited two years and ran, is the thought, but Salter was gunning for the job, Anna Goodlow had it out for him because they recently adopted a new software program for the dispatch nineeleven and some other aspects of the department and all the other departments in Johnson County share in that software. Well, everyone says it's just a total disaster, it doesn't work, it's pretty worthless. Anna Goodlow's husband, Dan Milam, IT director, so when the commissioner's court is looking to adopt new computer software equipment, they obviously get his input. But anyway, the theory on that is that Milam was all for this new software, it's called SOMA, and the sheriff and actually his accusers, everybody else on the law enforcement side just can't stand it and wants to get rid of it, the county's already spent a bunch of money to purchase it. And so one of the theories was that Anna just sort of ginned all these charges up to take the heat off of her husband, which doesn't really hold water either because he can talk about and suggest software or computer equipment, but the commissioners or the warrants who vote on that approve it, he can't approve it or take it away if it doesn't work. There was Tim Good, the new district attorney that took office on 01/01/2025, beat out longtime district attorney, Dale Hand, who'd been there for thirty, longest serving district attorney in Johnson County history, and they obviously not big fans of each other. Tim Good used to work there as an assistant district attorney before he went to private practice for a while and came back and ran as a DA. Adam King supported Del Hanna in that race. Most of the law enforcement community, not just Johnson County, Cleburne PD and all that, a lot of them supported Good, including Salter and his other chief deputies, David Blankenship and, Mark Reinhardt and, Danny Rogers, the captain, was another longtime friend of Adam. So supposedly there's a rift there of that support of Adam for the one DA and support for the others. I think that might be it. There might be one or two other theories that were floated, conspiracies type theories that were floating on internal power struggles. Yeah, yeah, and then just the culture of the sheriff's office, but there was no, it was sort of wink, wink, nudge, nudge, more than there was, here's some paperwork, here's some evidence. Evidence, right. Yeah. You talk about culture and I don't want to get ahead, but what currently, you know, I'm sure you probably talked to some of the rank and file down there. Yeah. What is the vibe or what is the culture? That is it a good like, do they do the deputies see it as a a strong place, a good place to work, or is there some term aside from these allegations? Sure. Sure. No. Well, I mean, I think leading up to this last year, it it it was pretty good because Sheriff King had got raises for the deputies and the staff. He had gone to Commissioner's Court of Budget and gotten new equipment and updated equipment and so forth. And he tried to kind of run it like a family, I guess. But in the wake of this, people I've talked to and the people that testified at the trial and all, it's just sort of, they've got to, they still gotta run a sheriff's office and address crime and people that need help in the county somehow, but then they've got all this background noise and drama going on. So it's just, and now you've got a sheriff that was initially barred from even going to the sheriff's office or any other county building, then he was allowed to come in three days a week with supervision and there's some allegations that he wouldn't always supervise. I don't know true or not on that, but so you've got all that going on and you've got people thinking like, well this trial's coming up, the trial was delayed by a couple of months, was supposed to have been in May originally, and then that was after close to a year of pretrial and everything, and so people thinking, well, when this is finally resolved, are some of us gonna have jobs, or who's gonna And be in even now, it's the the sheriff handpicked his interim acting sheriff against the wishes of some of the people there and some of the people there support him, but there's sort of a who's running this show right now and just an uneasiness, I think, and at the same time trying to do their job and serve the public, take calls. So it's just kind of a uncharted territory, I guess. Has there been any, you know, I go down there a lot, And I go I I prob this is a rudimentary measurement, but I see the patrol vehicles. They're they're everywhere down there. Yeah. I I mean, so they seem pretty proactive. You don't see a ton specifically deputy sheriff's deputies. Mhmm. The yeah. The sheriff's deputies. You don't see it or hear about a ton of crime down there, you know, in the county or even really in the cities for that matter. But since this, has there been any kind of, I guess, allegations or scuttle about the services being impacted? No. I don't think so. I mean, it like you see them going out, I see the, the arrest reports and stuff that they send to us and some things call and talk on. So they're still doing the the deputies, the detectives are still getting out there and doing their job. They're just get doing it under a kind of a background cloud of up in the air confusion, I guess. But but their focus hadn't dropped, and there there's, you know, they're still arresting the bad guys and helping out the people who need help down there. So it's it's just going along just sort of choppy waters, but going along otherwise. And Goodlow's still is she still an employee in there? Low's still there. She still works there. And I guess she Adam's supposed to stay down in his office and not really go out of there. Supposed to be supervised and she's her office is around the corner down the hall, but I don't know that he that they actually interact or see each other much, but you still got the two of them together in the building, which is a big building, but it's not a huge building. Mean, it's, you know. Yeah. So. What, if anything, surprised you the most after sitting through weeks of testimony that might not have been obvious before? Along those lines, who emerged as the most important witness in this case? Well, important witness, think I'll go first. I would say Danny Rogers when he testified, Captain Danny Rogers with the Captain, he's a captain. Right, and I've known him, and I've actually known Adam, he's been with the paper for twenty, twenty one years. I've known him pretty much all that time. Not, you know, hang out. Yeah. But On a professional basis. Right. And and same with Danny Rogers. He was with the Cleveland Police Department forever. And when he retired from there and when Adam became king sixteen, he brought on Danny Rogers. He might have I don't know if it was 2016, maybe a year later or something, but he brought him on to and they've been friends forever. Danny Rogers is godfather to King's daughter. And him and his wife and Adam and his wife Tammy, who's head of the Johnson County Children's Advocacy Center, know, they hang out and all, or until this they did. Rod What did he testify to? He took the stand and testified in support of Salter and Goodlow, and he said from the get go, this is hard, I don't wanna be here. Yeah. And he had got this big forty year cop, strong guy, he's choking up and holding back tears and saying, you know, I love Adam, he's my brother and I and so I just I don't see it's hard to well, hard to see him going against Brian King without but he's also saying, know, I've known Anna Goodlow for I've never known her to lie. I've known her to be a good upstanding honest person and kinda, you know, can't imagine why she would be making these charges up if they Weren't true. Weren't true. Yeah. And so and then the other one would be Cody Carroll was a jailer. He still is. He's still out there as a jailer that Adam, I don't know if you call promoted or hired to be his personal assistant and his personal or spiritual bodyguard. Yes. Explain that, yeah. Well, they didn't really get into that, and I think that might be one reason why King because I think it was King that wanted to take the trial, take the stab more than his attorneys wanted him to. And I've talked to Bill Mason and them and Matt Smith afterwards, but they're just sort of saying, Yeah, we didn't think we needed to as far as they didn't prove their case, but I wouldn't be surprised that there's some they were probably telling Adam, trying to talk him out of that, taking the stand. That's why they didn't call anyone. And the big part of that would be numerous things. But as far as that personal spiritual bodyguard and the one witness was talking about the him saying how the Satan was attacking the jail and I'm sure that the prosecutors would have jumped all over Right. And stuff on Cross, but Have you witnessed Satan at the jail at all? No, no. I was asking the prosecutors if they were gonna subpoena him to the stand, actually. But it turned out they didn't end having to do that. I'll keep an eye out next time I'm there. No, so Cody Carroll was basically, he's a jailer and I think he's worked there for a couple of years. So he's low man on the totem pole. And certainly he knew of Salter and King, but wouldn't have had any regular interaction with those guys. And so King hired him to be his assistant and his whatever spiritual bodyguard, whatever that entails. But so that had him going through surveillance tape to see, and I think he thought he was just gonna help out Adam with paperwork or something. I don't know what he was expecting. So he's got him watching videotape to see who's going to Anna and or Salter's office. And him and King are following one of the female employees around when she's out running around to see if she's going to the courthouse or the DA's office to make allegations and all this stuff. So he had nothing to do with this case at the get go, and he got kind of taken advantage of or roped in, and then once his use was done after two or three weeks, they just sent him back to being a jailer, and I don't think they even gave him a raise for his temporary spiritual bodyguard assignment there. So, I mean, you feel that, and he's a young kid and you just feel like this guy's got no dog in the hunt here and he's up here testifying this stuff and there's no way he can benefit by saying King's a bad guy or a good guy. So I think that was pretty impactful So to the who were the prosecutors on this case? Stephanie Bosworth, who is actually Judge Bosworth's wife. Judge Bosworth is the four hundred thirteenth District Judge. Obviously, he recused himself from the case because he's been judged for years, and he knows that I don't think they're buddy buddy, but he knows Adam King. None of the judges there were gonna take that case for Right. Your parents' sake. Stephanie actually has been elected as the new county court at law judge, but she didn't take office till January 1, but she's still in the DA's office. Christy May has been there for a few years. She was the, I think Christy was the lead on it. And Jason Judd, who's another newer. Yeah. So a younger, well, Stephanie's, but- She's got some skins on the wall. Yeah. And Christie's a good one and she's, they're pretty young, Christie and Jason Judd's probably the youngest on there. And Tim Good, I mean obviously the DA doesn't sit in on cases that often, but he didn't want to be in it because he was on the potential witness list. He didn't end up getting called, he was, that Gotcha. Was Yeah. And the defense, he had some high powered fourth Yeah, Mark Daniel. Mark Daniel, yeah. And Matt Smith, who works with Daniel at the same, at Daniel's Law Firm. Uh-huh. Who, Smith had been out in Johnson County. He had been with the DA or the county attorney assistant county attorney. I can't remember. He's from here. And then Bill Mason, who's a long time Cleburne attorney that's he's I've got dozens and dozens of cases that he's been on that have covered for the paper. Yeah. So. And the judge, visiting judge. Yeah. William Allen Weeks. What? Weeks. Weeks. Yeah. He was. Did I have that right? William Allen Weeks? Yeah. Yeah. He. Where's he from? He was in Abilene area. Okay. And then he's retired. Yeah, yeah. And so the administrative judge, Bosworth's administrative judge for the Johnson County, the administrative judge over the region, not exactly sure how that works, is out here in Fort Worth. Uh-huh. I know his name, I can't remember it. He's the guy that appoints when a judge is on vacation. Yeah. Yeah. If there is another, if they do a retry, it'll probably be Weeks again. He's still assigned to the case. He could he could request that they assign someone else because I was kinda joking with one of the attorneys. I said, I'm I'm betting Weeks probably never wanna see Johnson County again after this, but you know, so but he's so far he's still assigned to it. However it transpired, whether the defense talked him out of it or whatever, King ultimately did not did not testify. In fact, the defense didn't call any any So how significant was do you think that decision was? I mean, I think it it it was the right call because I I think the jurors, well, 11 of them anyway, were pretty much already had their minds made up. And then if King would have gotten up there, they some of those witnesses, they had up there for hours, for two days. Right. You know? And so I'm sure they would have had King up there for something like that, at least two days. And prosecutors would have gone after him and they would have brought up that whole Satan attacking the Yeah. You know, and and just other charges of other women. They did, I guess, kinda backfired on them with the child that he allegedly had out of wedlock that turned out and the jurors never heard any of that anyway, but they had other things that they were worried about. They would've needled him with. So again, I don't know. I didn't know anything about this. So kind of going back to the beginning. Yeah. Walk me through. How did it how did all of this come, like, initially come to the surface? So summer of twenty twenty five, James Salter, he's the chief deputy, he's the number two guy in the sheriff's department. There's three chief deputies, but he's the chief deputy among chief deputies, I guess. So Anna Goodlow, who'd worked there for a long time, came, said, you know, kinda talk to you and goes in his office and they sit down and talk. And she tells him about these allegations that King had allegedly said, you know, if you keep losing weight, I can't be held accountable for what matters. Ungodly things. Ungodly things. Ungodly, okay. You you wanna know what I did to women that wore white pants back when I was younger and those type things. Is uncanny how similar this is to things I've heard you say before, but anyway. There you go, Bruce. Anyone who knows me knows that's about the furthest thing from the truth. Well there were other women initially in the initial arrest warrant and stuff that had made comments, and they sorta haven't been revisited. So I don't know where that is, but, anyway, Savannah made these, and Salter said him and King were good friends. They'd only met back in 2016 as far as when they ran against each other. Yeah. Brought them on board as the number two guy getting along and all. He was conflicted. So he brought in, Mark Reinhart and David Blank, the other two chief deputies, and at some point, Danny Rogers, maybe immediately, but anyway, and they were talking like because usually if you get a sexual harassment or any kind of harassment complaint, you take it to the guy above you. Mhmm. And maybe ultimately the sheriff will hear the sheriff's the guy getting accused. So they're like, who do we What do do with this? What do we do with And they were they were kinda saying, you know, they they believed Anna. She's then they knew her and they had respect for her. So they're kinda saying, originally, we were just hoping it would go away. And they separated them where if if they knew if he was gonna be in her office or she had to go to her office, one of them would always show up. And they did that for a few days, and they finally figured out, you know, this isn't workable. And so we So that was that was the original Hot hard. Sort of a Yeah. I don't think that plan's gonna work out so hard. No. No. Just run interference for a while and they yeah. They quickly but and that's Gordon Salter's testimony and some of the others here. And then finally, Salter was like, I don't know. So he went to the to the personnel director for the county, and he went to Chris Badicker, the county judge, Johnson County judge, and they conferred and pointed it over to the Texas Rangers. And they took on because he they did try to get Cleburne Police and I think Burleson Police. I think they went to Tarrant County Sheriff Yeah. Fort Worth Street. Think I read that. And they were all like, no. We don't wanna, we're too close, we don't, you know. Ain't touching this. Yeah, and so they went with the Texas Rangers and they came back with the, you know, Results? Results, yeah, the investigative results. And, then shortly after that, Salter was brought in and defense and prosecutors differ on the terminology, but he was put on leave. Right. And the reason given as far as the paperwork that Adam King signed was that he had talked about there was a former office manager, Karen Charles. She's got cancer and has since passed away a couple years ago. But, apparently, there were the rumors swirling were that King and Karen Charles were having an affair. And depending on who you talked about, this was kinda general knowledge at the sheriff's office and talked about or whispered about by everybody, or it wasn't general knowledge. And so Salter and Hogan, Ben Hogan is a lieutenant. He's one on the kinda Adam King side of things. Was in Salter's office after these allegations of of Goodloe had come out, and he's saying, well, if all this is true apparently, allegedly is what he said. Saying, I wonder if the stuff about Karen Charles is true. And James Salter said, oh, yeah. Allegedly, according to Hogan, he said, oh, yeah. He's definitely Blanking her. Blanking her. And Will Hogan ran to Adam King and told him supposedly again. And then Adam suspended him for, you know, bringing dishonor onto the sheriff and the sheriff's office blah blah blah even though that had never been done before that anyone can remember. So the timing of it is what the prosecutors are saying, you know, that's real funny. You ever talk to the ranger or the rangers that conducted the investigation? No. I I said hi to and a guy's name. He he testified. He was up there forever, but I I didn't. And I don't really know him. I knew the ranger, Stoner, was the ranger that appointed him. He used to be the Texas ranger here, but he's since been promoted to Austin. Mhmm. And but at the time, he was the supervisor of the guy that did the investigation. So did you see any of the you know, obviously, probably saw the arrest warrant Yeah. Working. Yeah. Did you see any of the other in or in trial? Were any of the other investigative pieces or evidentiary pieces covered in the trial, like, you know, any kind of recorded interviews? Some of yeah. And they did, record it. They didn't, King had cameras in his office, so they had some video of him and, his guys in the office talking, including that Cody Carroll guy was talking about earlier that he And then as when the the ranger was up, he there was some just from his reports and stuff that was put on the overhead for the jury to look at. And and so I didn't I made notes of it and looked at it, but I didn't dive in deep on it because kinda stuff I'd already seen and the arrest So in the trial, was the so he was charged with official oppression? Yeah. He actually had four charges, but they went with one. Okay. So I don't if you want me to run. There was official oppression by retaliation against James Salter, official by retaliation against Anna Goodlow, harassment charge against Goodlow. Mhmm. And then there was a the perjury charge, which was subsequent when after the grand jury. So and they went with the retaliation against salter charge, and obviously, they had to bring in the background of how that Yeah. Goodlow stuff and all. And they told me at the time when the trial opened, Christie May and them, that I asked if they were going to try him on the other charges subsequently, and they kinda gave a vague, yeah, maybe we'll be that's to be determined type answer. So So we have the this is like with any internal investigation. Right? So you have two pieces. You have your in this case, you had your criminal component to it, I. E, the trial, the charge of official oppression. But then you're gonna have your internal piece to it as well. Was there any and and they don't have coincide, right? Just because it was a mistrial on the criminal charges doesn't mean that misconduct did not exist. Sure. I mean, the the burden of proof is different. So, investigation, Yeah. You're So was there any kind of discipline? Did he get any type of discipline? King, you're talking? Yeah. No, because he's an elected official, so none of the you have the county judge is kinda the head of the county, and the commissioner's court is roughly analogous to, like, the city council and the mayor, sorta. Not exactly, but the county judge is over several departments. You have elected officials and department heads, and the county judge or any elected official has certain department heads that he hires or appoints and that he or she can well, with the county judge, he'd have to go through commissioner's court, think, but he can fire or discipline them. But one elected official and another, and you've got the county judge, the sheriff, you've got district clerk. They're completely independent. Yeah, they're like their own little kingdom, so the county judge can't fire the sheriff or discipline the sheriff. So that's why one of the reasons they for the independent investigation with the Texas Rangers. So if there's a finding of wrongdoing or suspicion, they have to take that to the DA who takes it to the grand jury who says, yeah, there's enough to move ahead with charging on this. And so that has to be done, I guess like a referendum or recall by the voters, but otherwise it'd have to go through the court process. So they can't, Chris Bettaker, the county judge, can't give Adam King a demerit or a strike against him or anything. So I guess the question is there was no internal There was no yeah, that's a Long answer to your short question. Yeah. See, that's what that that I mean, there is no like I said, they're they're two separate concepts. But in in summary, it sounds like nothing internally Was even Was done or could be done for that matter. Right, probably not. But what happens now with Goodlow and Salter? Well, Salter subsequently been fired. Like I said, the trial was originally supposed to start in May and Salter was fired like a week or so before the trial was originally supposed to start. So he's fired and Goodlow's still there and showing up to work as are Blankenship and Reinhart and the others. Because there there are two civil cases against the sheriff that will happen down the road, and Salter and good lower parties in that as are Reinhardt, Blankenship and some other people. But those other people are all showing up and going to work and Adam is there supposedly three days a week. He's still on that modified? Yeah, modified, yeah. And I asked his attorneys if that would change and he said, I mean, we could or the prosecutors could come and try to modify that, but as far they're still in place for now until whatever happens happens. So year or what? Yeah. A year and a half. Another year and a half until He's up for The net or two years. However, whenever the next election is in '28. '28 would be his Two years. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a long time. It is. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I mean, and what else comes up? What else comes out? I don't know, but it's, yeah, it's, it's going to be a mess. It sounds like to me. I mean, it's not going to be functional, Right. Well, mean, how does Goodlow needs authorization for XYZ training that costs $10,000? Do you think he's going to sign off on that? Right? I mean Well, see and and when Adam King put himself on administrative leave and appointed Ben Olli Ben Ariola as acting sheriff. Uh-huh. So anything that they they have to go through Areola, Areola goes to Adam, Adam says yay or nay, Areola goes back to them. So it's you got that you know, kinda like on the Brady bunch when they ran the tape down the room and, you know, you stay on that side or but so they're dealing with that craziness. Yeah. And go ahead. There were some one one of the stories I did read, I guess, some fears about some kind of child exploitation material. He had a fear of that. Yeah. Yeah. That's well, that goes back to Dan Milam, the IT director. So there's a King's, I guess work computer, his laptop has gone missing and nobody ever actually asked him where is it. So it's where it is, who knows for now. And that's his county issued laptop computer. And he stopped using that saying that he's afraid that Malam would get on there, it remotely or however and put child porn on there so that they could say, oh, look at there, the sheriff's got child porn. Another, you know, one of the the theories of of the people out to get Adam King and I mean, and maybe I don't know. Maybe this is not anything unusual for I don't, I mean, I hesitate to call Johnson County a rural county at this point, right? I mean. It's in a mix. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of a hybrid. Mean, it was population Johnson County these days, 170, I want to say. And most of that's in Burleson, right? There's like 50,000, because Burleson has got a little bit of Tarrant County in it. Especially since the toll road opened, they're building like crazy and godly. Development follows the major arteries. And out there towards Venus and all that is house built because 360 is going to be connecting in eventually on that side of the county. What's that sheriff's job pay? 100 and something a year. Don't know exactly. Know, yeah, probably 100 and change. It surprised you at all that, of course typically it's the defense that wants to change a venue. Right. They didn't, obviously didn't want to do that in this case, but did it surprise you the prosecution did? Yeah, yeah, it did. And I'm thinking if they do have another one, would not be surprised, I kind of expect that they will have it somewhere else. Almost have to, right? Yeah, I don't know where that would be, but yeah, yeah. Especially for an elected official, I mean, Lord knows you're gonna run into somebody who's just absolutely adamantly not gonna look at this objectively. Yeah, yeah. I mean that's the Facebook, because I was in there when they did jury selection and that took all day on the, not the first day of the trial, the day before the first day, and they asked, do you know the sheriff or do you know anybody, the judge or anybody, and some people did, and they obviously didn't get on there, but one of the Facebook rumors is that one of the jurors knew him and somehow got on the jury, which sounds like a John Grisham novel and would be near impossible to pull off, but the one thing is that the the one juror just couldn't convict for whatever reasons of, like, personal or religious or moral or whatever, and so the other 11 just argued with that juror over two days' time and finally just gave out the impasse. Yeah. Yeah. And so so but You know what's bullshit, though? Like, who pays for this? Right? The rank and file Because I can, you know, I mean, obviously, in that world for a little bit, there's gonna be so much turmoil. Like I said, that training example. Mhmm. Trying to get anything done is gonna be difficult now. So they're paying for it, whether it be through training, equipment, whatever, which side of the aisle were you on in this because whole I can guarantee you half those deputies, you know, half are probably for them, half are probably So against if you're in that against camp, you're not getting that training, that equipment, whatever it is that you need. So then who ultimately pays for it? The citizens, the taxpayers. The residents of Johnson County. Yeah. Which is terrible. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, with them paying for it, there is a chance that the services provided will certainly suffer. And that that to me is the like I said, that's the total bullcrap part of it that they can't make adult decisions and do the right thing. Is there an element of ego, pride? I mean, how how can you effectively run a sheriff's department with that cloud hanging over you either fire everyone more or less or you leave. Any chance of that? That Sheriff King quits before his term is up or that he doesn't run again in 2028? Yeah, I'd heard unconfirmed, totally unconfirmed before all this came up that the plan was for him to not run again in '28 and his wife who is, like I said, executive director of Johnson County Children Advocacy Center. She's been there for, I don't know, thirty years or something that she was gonna retire and they were going to retire and go do what they're gonna do, and then all this came up. So, I don't know what this has done to their finances as far as having to pay for Mark Daniels and that bunch. Yeah. So I I don't see him running again in 2028, but stranger things have happened. I don't know that he will what he'll do. I guess he'll just hang around for the interim. So he faced two to ten years. Right. Probation and restitution. Yeah. He also would have had to give up his seat or his position. Office, yes. Had he been convicted. I wonder if there's a chance where the DA's office tries to cut a deal with him. You're take gone, we won't retry it. Yeah, and that's what I was thinking because when I was asking the DA, the attorneys there whether they're gonna do the other charges, I was thinking if they would've got a guilty verdict on this, whether it was two years or ten years or whatever, he's out of office, he's gone, and this is just me, personal opinion, that they probably weren't going to bother with those other cases because they didn't want to go through all that time and expense and they've got plenty of other unrelated cases to deal with out there. Mean financially it might be worth it just to not have to go through this again and just leave. Yeah. I would think so. Yeah. I mean, rest assured, those those particular attorneys, they're not cheap. No. No. No. I mean, I don't know that you could I mean, they're good. You know, they're good at what they do. Certainly. But that comes with a a hefty price tag. And and again, I mean, I like I said, I mean, I'm looking at it more through the lens of why, you know, I wouldn't wanna make everybody else pay. Even even if it was complete bullshit, there was no element of truth to any of this. You got screwed, but you're still making the people in Johnson County, they are going to suffer. Yeah. In some way, shape, or form. That's what's frustrating. And then I guess I didn't think with it being an elected position. Yeah. I mean, are no, you know, there there's criminal consequences, but that's it. I mean, that's kind of my That's the only avenue they had to take this on. The civil cases, whatever become of those, because Johnson County's named in both of those as well as Adam King. The one I'm seeking 50,000,000, and the other is It'd be Brief. Damages of at least 250,000 for each of the I think it's six plaintiffs. I think some new people have jumped in there. But yeah. Was there any kind of record, like did anyone surreptitiously record him in any of the No, and they, that's what, because Daniel and them were suggesting, you know, why didn't Anna Goodlow, when they were talking to the she didn't she didn't testify in this trial, but when they're talking to the Texas Ranger and other people, they said, why didn't you mic up Anna Goodlow and send her in there to talk to sheriff? And and Christy May and, she flipped out. We don't revictimize our victims, and that's ridiculous, and so there's nothing I think that's why they went initially with the retaliation against Salter, because there all they had to prove was that Salter, in good faith, when Anna came to him with these allegations, thought, you know, hey, this who knows? But it sounds like there's enough here that this needs to be looked at and investigated, and he went and reported it, and King allegedly retaliated against him. So in that trial, you're not dealing with the truth or not of Anna's allegations of sexual, harassment. You're dealing with whether Salter was retaliated against and for reporting in good faith. And I think that's probably easier to, or they thought it was probably easier to prove than, because with the Salter, with the Goodlow things, they, all of those were Adam and Anna in his office or her office. I don't think any of those were in front of other people or recorded or witnessed. All right. That's Matt Smith, longtime reporter of the Cleveland Times Review. Thank you, Matt, for joining us today. Thanks, Matt. Glad to be here. Quite insightful reflections there. Thank you, Matt. You're welcome. No, that's it for us today. Where can they find us? Can find us on, you guys can find us on Sunset Lounge DFW or Signal 51 Chronicles. Like, subscribe, however it happens and we will see you guys next time. What a mess that is in Johnson County. This is a Stolen Water Media production.