Texas Councilwoman Started Asking Questions—and Got Arrested

Welcome to wild and wacky Godley, Texas, which derives its name not from the Almighty, but from a lumber merchant who donated eight acres for its future site in 1886.

Since then, Godley has grown into a municipality of about 2,000 that was outwardly much like many others—until late last year, when the resignation of the police chief was followed by the departure en masse of the city administrator, the city attorney and the city secretary. City Hall itself shut down and remains closed due to a staffing shortage.

“It’s like Parks and Rec, but for real, and less funny,” resident Warren Norred wrote on Facebook.

The former police chief, Jason Jordan, triggered the other departures with what has become known in Godley as “the blue folder.” The folder—a copy of which Jordan left for each of the five city council members—contained complaints filed against him by two officers. One, who is Black, charged Jordan with demonstrating “racial animus.” The other officer alleged that Jordan had body shamed him during a City Council meeting by suggesting he is overweight.

As has been reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and confirmed to The Daily Beast by a resident who has a copy, the folder also includes Jordan’s written denials of the allegations. He says that the mayor and the city attorney gave him a choice: resign or face a full investigation. He says that he quit to avoid a protracted legal fight.

But Jordan was not done. He also filled the folder with diary entries and texts and other papers that, in the view of City Council member Jennifer Thompson, document a municipality in administrative and financial disarray.

Thompson runs a pizzeria and she studied the papers with the eye of a small business owner. She was shocked to see the town had no formal inventory of its assets. Expenses were rounded off. And the budgets seemed haphazard at best.

“Lots of red flags,” Thompson told The Daily Beast.

Thompson began asking lots of questions, and they were followed by lots of resignations. The police chief had been immediately replaced by a sergeant with the department, but the other vacancies could only be filled with the approval of a majority of the City Council. Thompson and two others on the five-member body were ready to reject the choices of the longtime mayor, Acy McGehee. And since the mayor can only vote to break a tie, that meant Thompson’s crew would be a 3-2 majority when it came to voting on the replacements.

At the same time, Thompson submitted a list of more than a dozen major items to be brought before the council: an asset inventory, budget lines, employee qualifications, staff salaries, expenses, gifts received by city officials. And she had the votes to pass them.

But two council members aligned with McGehee proved their loyalty by joining him in simply not showing up to meetings on Dec. 27 and Jan. 13, depriving the panel of a quorum under state law.

The next meeting was scheduled for Jan. 17 and it seemed the mayor might have to finally face Thompson and the opposing majority. But when the day approached, it turned out McGehee had failed to post the agenda 72 hours in advance, as required by state law.

Another meeting was set for Feb. 7, and this time the agenda was posted ahead of the deadline. Among the items: the appointment of a law firm that the mayor favored to serve as the new city attorney.

When Thompson turned into her regular parking spot on Feb. 7 to attend the meeting, a police car was standing with the motor running.

“I got there 30 minutes early,” she later told The Daily Beast. “So I can get all my ducks in a row.”

The police car pulled up behind her. Two officers, a male and a female, stepped out. The male officer strode up her driver’s side window.

“We have a warrant for your arrest, we need you to vacate your vehicle,” the male officer said by Thompson’s account.

“What am I being arrested for?” Thompson asked.

The male officer repeated the command. Thompson repeated the question. The female officer joined the exchange, saying, “After I handcuff you and get you in the car, I’ll show you the warrant.”

Thompson recalls that the handcuffs were very tight as she sat in the back of the police car. The male officer gave her the Miranda rights.

“What is the warrant for?” Thompson asked again.

The female officer then gave Thompson just a glimpse of a piece of paper.

“There’s the warrant,” the officer said.

The officer pulled it away before Thompson was able to read the charges. Thompson did catch the name of the officer who had sworn to the allegations. It was Jeremy Arbuthnot, the cop who had reported being body shamed by Chief Jordan.

Thompson had filed a formal complaint of her own against Arbuthnot with the city attorney on Dec. 22 for “trying to sway my votes” as well as for “threats made to a city council member.” She alleged that Arbuthnot had threatened to sue her and the city if she even thought of bringing Jordan back.

Thompson still did not know what she was being charged with when she was led into the Johnson County Jail and joined five other women in a holding area.

“They were pretty scary,” she recalled. “They were all tatted up. I’m like, ‘Oh crap, I’m about to get my butt kicked.’”

A jailer called out her name and directed her into what was called Stall One.

“I need you to strip down,” the jailer said. “Everything comes off.”

Thompson complied, removing even her favorite earrings, silver hoops which were not returned to her.

“Now I need you to squat, pull your butt cheeks apart and cough three times,” the jailer said.

“Is this necessary?” Thompson asked.

“You heard what I said,” the jailer told her.

Thompson was doing as ordered right around the time the City Council was considering the agenda item “to approve the mayor’s hiring of [an] interim city attorney.” Thompson’s chair in the chamber stood empty as the matter came to a vote.

“All in favor?” McGehee asked.

The council members allied with McGehee were sitting on either side of him. The one on his right raised her hand. But the mayor had to give the one on his left a nudge.

“Oh,” she said.

She raised her hand to signal her approval.

“All opposed?” McGehee asked.

The two members of Thompson’s crew raised their hands, but she herself was absent. The tie enabled the mayor to vote.

“Well, this casts the tie breaking for it,” the mayor said. ”So the motion carries.”

The mayor won that and every other vote he wanted. And Thompson took another hit as one of the mayor’s minions read aloud a Jan. 13 letter. It was to the city from an attorney representing Police Officer Solomon Omotoya, who had filed the racial discrimination suit against the now-departed police chief.

After alleging instances of Jordan’s “racist animus” towards Omotoya, the letter recounted a subsequent encounter between the officer and Thompson. The letter described her as “berating” Omotoya for having filed the complaint against Jordan and for “colluding” with other cops against the chief. It noted that Thompson had filed a complaint against Omotoya for threatening her and attempting to sway her vote—the same allegations she had made against Arbuthnot.

“Next item,” McGehee now said.

In another Godley moment, Omotoya himself then stepped up with a prospective new police officer whose hiring was next on the agenda. Omotoya told the council that he had conducted an extensive background investigation of the candidate, who he noted is “triple certified” as a cop, firefighter and EMT.

“I do move that we recommend that we hire this gentleman because he would be a great fit to our department,” Omotoya said.

When it came to a vote, McGhee again nudged the woman on his left to vote in favor. But one of Thompson’s crew was also a yes and there was no tie for the mayor to beak.

Thompson remained in custody. She was arraigned on Wednesday morning and learned she was charged with tampering with government records. She acknowledged that she revised a draft of an agenda when she saw that some of her items had not been included. But she insisted to The Daily Beast that the secretary was aware of the change when she turned it in. She said it had not yet been officially posted and was still just a draft.

A mugshot of her in a striped jail uniform went on Facebook when she was still in custody and triggered an outpouring of support.

“I’m jail famous,” she told The Daily Beast.

At one point in Tuesday's hearing, a woman named Kayla Lain called out to McGehee that he should arrange to have the charges against Thompson dropped. The mayor insisted that he had nothing to do with it. He said the case has been brought by the Johnson County Attorney.

But on Friday, the county attorney’s said that the charges had been initiated by the police, who then brought it before a judge, who then signed the arrest warrant. The county attorney’s office will only get involved in the days ahead, when it decides whether to proceed with the case.

A Godley political activist named Scott Yarborough suggested that whoever got the case going gave Thompson a big boost in her struggle with the mayor and his allies.

“Didn’t they ever hear of a martyr?” Yarborough asked.

Then somebody posted a court record showing that Thompson had pleaded guilty 19 years ago to two felony counts of fraudulent use of an identity document. Court papers show she was sentenced to two years in jail and five years probation. But it is not clear if she actually served time or whether the case was adjudicated so she would not have a felony record, which would preclude her from holding public office in Texas.

Thompson told The Daily Beast that she has been advised by her lawyer not to comment on the particulars of the case.

“It was taken care of and reported to the appropriate authorities,” she said. “It’s very stressing because that’s not who I am. It was 20 years ago.”

She announced on Facebook that she will not be posting for a while.

“I have paid for my past and I hate that people are using it against me,” she said.

Yarborough characterized the conflict between McGehee and Thompson as a battle between an old guard “monarchy” and younger people looking for a changing city where ranch land is giving way to housing developments.

Thompson says she is so battered that she may decide not to run when she is up for re-election. McGehee did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment, but he told the Star-Telegram after Tuesday’s meeting that he hopes to have City Hall reopened within the next few days.

The next council meeting is set for Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. However it goes, Godley is sure to continue being wild and wacky.