Campaigning on the Clock?

No matter who wins the Republican nomination for Precinct 4’s commissioner’s seat — one of three currently open — on Tue., March 1, many Tarrant County residents will have lingering questions about how long county leaders in Precinct 4 used government resources for personal business, including campaigning — a potentially serious violation of the state’s penal code.

State and federal laws that govern the actions of public officials are written to prevent government employees from using government resources for personal gain. Violations of Section 39.01 of Texas’ penal code can result in criminal charges that range from misdemeanors to felonies, depending on the value of the misused government resources.

Political campaigns are considered private affairs, and at least one Precinct 4 elected official appears to have worked during business hours to support his own campaign — Constable Jody Johnson. The son of longtime Precinct 4 commissioner J.D. Johnson is in a heated battle against fellow Republican Manny Ramirez to speak for the precinct that encompasses west and northwest Tarrant County.

Several weeks ago, a whistleblower gave me copies of county emails that appear to show Jody using government resources and personnel to work on his campaign (“Takin’ Care of Business,” Feb 12). We chose to delay publishing the details of the two dozen documents in my possession to afford Jody’s campaign the chance to comment — something his team has refused to do — and to provide time for me to independently verify the documents’ authenticity. I requested copies of those same documents via open records requests. Two days ago, I received two emails from the county.

According to one publicly released 2018 email, Precinct 4 administrator Nicole Benoit emailed Jody using her government email during business hours.

“How does it look?” she asked the constable.

Attached were six pages of Jody’s 2018 campaign finance report compiled, signed, and notarized by Benoit. When Jody took office in 2016, he listed Sarah Hollenstein as his campaign treasurer, but Hollenstein’s name does not appear anywhere on any of Jody’s finance reports. Between 2015 and 2022, county employee Benoit signed and notarized 11 of 16 of Jody’s campaign finance reports.

“Thank you,” Jody replied via his county email 13 minutes later. “They look great.”

One year later, another email from Benoit to Jody appears to again show Jody conducting personal, campaign work during business hours.

“We have a report due in 14 days,” Benoit wrote to Johnson in early 2019. “Do you mind if I start getting our ducks in a row and working on it? I might have questions, and I will need to access the [campaign] bank account. Is that OK?”

My initial request for copies of all emails sent between Benoit and Jody between 2016 and 2022 came back with 54 pages of communications that had been purged of documents already in my possession that detail misuse of government resources on the part of Jody. Soon after I received the documents, a staffer with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office — citing my request for communications between Benoit and Jody — notified me that an undisclosed number of emails had been forwarded to the State Attorney General’s office. The process allows governmental groups like DA’s offices to hide or at least delay the release of embarrassing or potentially incriminating government documents.

I asked the DA’s office if their request for a legal brief could be seen as an attempt to protect one well-connected Republican candidate during a contentious primary. The DA spokesperson did not respond, but their office subsequently released the two emails described above. A DA staffer recently informed me that one potentially incriminating email from current Justice of the Peace Jason Charbonnet to Jody that I possess can no longer be found on county servers.

The DA’s office recently withdrew its request for a legal brief from the AG’s office, stating that “all responsive documents” had been released to me even as possibly dozens of others appear to be missing.