02/20/2025
🚨 BREAKING EXCLUSIVE from Sarah Fields - MORE POSSIBLE CORRUPTION IN EAST TEXAS - SMITH COUNTY.
🚨Smith County Pct 5 Judge Johnson’s Resignation: A Closer Look at “The good old boy system” 🚨
Smith County Pct 5 Judge Jon Johnson recently announced his resignation, but not without raising a few eyebrows in the process. Here's a simplified breakdown of what happened:
On July 1, 2024, Judge Johnson’s resignation letter was delivered, starting a countdown under Texas law for when the resignation would become official if not acted upon. It included a recommendation for who he wanted to be his successor.
On July 9th, By law, since no action was taken, Judge Johnson’s resignation automatically became effective. Oddly, there was no discussion scheduled on the commissioners court agenda this day about the resignation, hinting at possible pre-arranged silence by the court. An email from Judge Johnson was sent to Judge Franklin requesting to rescind the resignation after court adjourned, days after the deadline for the meeting’s agenda and too late to stop the resignation from automatically being accepted.
In fact, there was silence until August 23rd just days after the August 19th deadline to call for a SPECIAL ELECTION to fill the vacancy.
For over a month, there was no public statement or press release about Judge Johnson’s resignation. It wasn't until August 23 that any information was released, suggesting decisions or discussions might have been happening behind closed doors.
Why were things done this way you might ask? To run out the clock and avoid giving the citizens of smith county the ability to vote on a new judge, and instead, have a judge appointed by 5 members of commissioner’s court.
Despite the clear move to avoid an election, Judge Franklin insists he played no part in orchestrating the resignation process.
However, in this video from the last commissioners court meeting, all five council members are seen returning from an executive session to a public session to "vote for Judge Johnson’s replacement." Franklin makes it clear that they had already decided behind closed doors who would be taking Johnson’s place. He is quickly reminded by the Smith County attorney that a public vote must be held. This is a CLEAR violation of the open meetings act.
In summary, the way Judge Johnson’s resignation was handled—from the delayed announcement to the lack of transparency by the court—clearly shows that the "good old boy" system is alive and well in Smith County. This is not the first time Smith County has done this, and it won’t be the last until we decide that we will no longer tolerate this any further.
It is also very suspicious that this particular video could not be found on the Smith County website. But instead had to be pulled from social media. Was this an oversight? Sloppiness? Or intentional?
