Jury selection is due to begin on Monday in the criminal trial of a serving Texas sheriff accused of turning the powers of his office against an employee who reported him for sexual harassment.
Adam King, the elected sheriff of Johnson County, will appear at the justice centre in Cleburne, south of Fort Worth, where prosecutors allege he retaliated against a female member of staff after she lodged a complaint against him. According to CBS News Texas, he was first arrested last August on charges of abuse of office and corrupt influence. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The indictment paints a detailed picture of the alleged conduct. It claims King made remarks of a sexual or harassing nature, among them a demand that the woman “disrobe” before he would sign any documents. He is also accused of attempting to obtain her home address in a manner that, the indictment states, would cause a reasonable person to feel “harassed, terrified, intimidated, alarmed or tormented.” After she reported him to the Texas Rangers, prosecutors say, he threatened to handcuff her and book her into the county jail.
The case has drawn in others within the department. King is alleged to have threatened Chief Deputy James Saulter, who passed the allegations on to investigators, in what the indictment describes as a violation of the state’s whistleblower protections. In a separate development, King dismissed Saulter in May over what he said were policy breaches. Saulter had been scheduled to testify against him.
A further charge has compounded the case. CBS News Texas reported that King was indicted in October for perjury, accused of lying under oath during grand jury testimony. WFAA, which has followed the case closely, reported that the count concerns allegations he falsely denied altering an employee’s work schedule after learning she had accused him of harassment.
Despite the charges, King remains in post. He was permitted to continue serving under court-ordered conditions, including a bar on contact with alleged victims and a requirement that he be chaperoned at work. Married and described as a longstanding figure in local law enforcement, he has framed the trial as a chance to restore his reputation. “I’m just ready to get my name cleared,” he told WFAA at a pretrial hearing last month. “We are ready for this to be over. It’s taking a toll on us.”
The road to trial has not been straightforward. The proceedings were postponed last month, days before they had been due to start. Prosecutors have also signalled an intention to introduce a range of older allegations, including a disputed claim relating to an alleged relationship dating back more than two decades, which King strongly denies and over which he has requested DNA testing. A judge would need to approve such material before any of it could be put before jurors.
The outcome carries weight beyond the individuals involved, testing how the courts hold a sitting law enforcement official to account on accusations made by the very people he was elected to lead. Opening arguments are expected to follow jury selection, with the trial forecast to last at least a week.
