{"id":365401,"date":"2026-07-08T14:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T14:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365401\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T14:24:18","slug":"johnson-county-sheriffs-trial-ends-in-hung-jury-mistrial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365401\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson County sheriff\u2019s trial ends in hung jury, mistrial"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Johnson County jury could not agree Tuesday on whether the county\u2019s top law enforcement official, Sheriff Adam King<\/a>, was guilty or not guilty of retaliating against a witness.<\/p>\n

At around 6 p.m., jurors sent another note to Judge John Wilson Weeks, informing the court that the state of discussions had not changed since Monday evening. One juror remained in opposition to the majority and said that further deliberations would not change their mind, according to the note.<\/p>\n

Rather than immediately declare a mistrial, attorneys agreed to send the jury a note from Weeks, which asked jurors if they believed it was impossible for a verdict to be reached. The jurors responded roughly 20 minutes later that they were hopelessly deadlocked, and the judge then declared a mistrial.<\/p>\n

The foreperson had informed officials around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday that discussions in the jury room were not making any further progress toward a unanimous verdict, prompting Weeks to read out a supplemental charge.<\/p>\n

The instruction, known as an Allen charge,<\/a> directed the jury to continue deliberating, urging the members in the minority to reconsider their positions without compromising their convictions and consider the views of opposing jurors with an open mind in hopes of preventing a mistrial. The charge also reminded jurors that, if the trial were to end in a hung jury, the case could be retried at a later date before a different jury that would likely hear the same evidence.<\/p>\n

Jurors began deliberations about 4 p.m. Monday after Weeks gave the jury instructions<\/a> and both sides made closing arguments.<\/a> Defense attorneys for Sheriff King rested their case Monday morning without calling any witnesses, despite saying earlier in the trial that they believed King would testify.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors rested their case July 2 after more than two weeks of witness testimony at the Guinn Justice Center in Cleburne.<\/p>\n

Deliberations lasted until 10:30 p.m. Monday night and resumed around 10:30 Tuesday morning, with a total of about 14 hours before the mistrial was declared.<\/p>\n

Around 2 p.m. Tuesday, Weeks brought the jury back in to hear a readout of testimony from witnesses Richard Hogan and James Saulter, the chief deputy against whom King is accused of retaliating. Prosecutors have argued that Saulter was placed on leave last year and later fired by King because Saulter reported allegations that King sexually harassed Anna Goodloe.<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, jurors sent a note to the judge expressing confusion about portions of Saulter\u2019s and Hogan\u2019s testimonies that dealt with a conversation the two men had about rumored sexual relations between King and Karen Charles, a former office manager.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys have argued that Saulter was placed on administrative leave last year because of comments he made in this conversation, and not because he reported harassment. Jurors were seeking clarification about the context in which the topic of Karen Charles came up in the conversation between Hogan and Saulter.<\/p>\n

Weeks and attorneys for both sides spent a large part of the morning session trying to sort out which portions of testimony to reread to the jury in response, eventually settling on pieces from the direct examination and cross-examination of both men.<\/p>\n

Saulter testified that the topic of Charles came up as he and Hogan were drawing a connection between the allegations made by Goodloe, who was the office\u2019s training coordinator, and the rumors about King and Charles, according to the readout.<\/p>\n

During this portion of proceedings, Saulter and fellow witnesses Mark Reinhardt, Danny Rogers and David Blankenship entered the courtroom and sat in the gallery behind the prosecutor\u2019s table. King\u2019s wife and daughter also entered the courtroom and had a seat in the row immediately behind King.<\/p>\n

Supporters of King, who have filled the courtroom for the entire duration of proceedings, were present and waiting for the verdict as well.<\/p>\n

The defense has argued that Saulter was initially disciplined for spreading rumors about King having sex with Charles, not for reporting Goodloe\u2019s allegations. Saulter was fired<\/a> in May of this year after failing to appear for a mandatory interview tied to an internal affairs investigation of alleged timekeeping discrepancies, according to testimony.<\/p>\n

A judge allowed King to return to work following his August 2025 indictment, but he was ordered to avoid contact with witnesses in the case.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when or if the case will be retried. If convicted, King faces a possible prison term of two to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000. If there had been a guilty verdict, the trial would have proceeded to a punishment phase, where jurors would\u2019ve heard additional testimony to help them decide what penalty to impose.<\/p>\n

Other charges in the indictment are pending and also could be tried at a later date.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 11:46 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Lillie Davidson<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Johnson County jury could not agree Tuesday on whether the county\u2019s top law enforcement official, Sheriff Adam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-365401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}