{"id":441291,"date":"2026-09-19T19:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441291\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T19:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:04:19","slug":"ex-state-rep-burnam-sues-judge-tarrant-county-over-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441291\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-state rep Burnam sues judge, Tarrant County over arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Texas representative who was ejected from a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting in August and subsequently arrested<\/a> is suing the county and Judge Tim O\u2019Hare in federal court, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare ordered Lon Burnam removed<\/a> from the Aug. 4 meeting when the 73-year-old picked up the microphone \u2014 in an alleged violation of the meeting rules \u2014 during his one minute of public comment. Burnam said he was protesting O\u2019Hare\u2019s removal of another public speaker for handling the microphone when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n

The former state representative lay down on the floor in what he described as \u201cnonviolent resistance,\u201d and deputies from the Tarrant County Sheriff\u2019s Office had to carry him out. Burnam alleges that O\u2019Hare violated his First Amendment rights and claims that the county has repeatedly used its authority to silence \u201ccritical speakers,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Burnam\u2019s complaint was filed Sept. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.<\/p>\n

The day of Burnam\u2019s arrest, the commissioners were discussing cutting the number of polling locations for the Nov. 3 midterm election. O\u2019Hare removed one man during public comments for picking up the microphone.<\/p>\n

The former state representative said in the court documents that he\u2019d understood the man is autistic and had previously received permission to handle the microphone. Burnam felt O\u2019Hare treated the speaker unfairly and decided to protest.<\/p>\n

The 73-year-old defended his behavior at the meeting, stating in the lawsuit that he \u201cdid not damage the microphone, threaten anyone, strike anyone, block the proceedings, attempt to obtain a second speaking turn, or prevent another speaker from being heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnam has been charged with disrupting a meeting and disorderly conduct. His defense attorney, Tiffany Burks, filed a motion on Sept. 9 seeking to dismiss the charges.<\/p>\n

\"Former Former Texas Rep. Lon Burnam is kicked out and arrested during public comment at a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 in Fort Worth. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram <\/p>\n

Burnam was previously removed from a Tarrant County Commissioners meeting on July 2, 2024. According to the lawsuit, he approached O\u2019Hare after the public portion of the meeting and criticized him for his alleged treatment of Commissioner Alisa Simmons. Burnam states that he observed O\u2019Hare cut off Simmons and declare her out of order while she was questioning county staff.<\/p>\n

A week later, Burnam was given a criminal-trespass warning and forbidden to enter Tarrant County property, but \u201cits duration and scope were not adequately explained,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe July 2024 events are alleged as evidence of motive, intent, notice, municipal custom, and the relationship between Plaintiff\u2019s criticism and subsequent exclusion,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Burnam is requesting compensatory damages and a ruling declaring that the actions taken against him Aug. 4 violated the First and 14th amendments, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

He also asks that a judge declare the county\u2019s rules of decorum<\/a> unconstitutional since \u201cthey were used to suppress protected criticism or impose exclusion without an actual material disruption,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

In a separate lawsuit, filed Sept. 9 in Tarrant County, Burnam seeks to remove O\u2019Hare from office on the grounds of official misconduct and incompetency.<\/p>\n

According to the petition, Burnam alleges that he\u2019s observed O\u2019Hare interrupt or remove speakers who\u2019ve criticized him or the Commissioners Court. He\u2019s also \u201cadministered public-comment rules harshly and inconsistently,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Ruth Ray, a spokesperson for O\u2019Hare, alleged in an emailed statement Wednesday that Burnam showed up \u201cwith plans to disrupt the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe refused to follow the duly adopted rules of decorum, which he has done repeatedly,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cHe then refused to leave and dropped to the floor, so deputies had to carry him out. Now, two months before Election Day, he wants a judge to overturn an election and couldn\u2019t even clean the AI links out of his pleading. This is a sad political stunt. It won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah Nesbitt, another O\u2019Hare spokesperson, previously said the county\u2019s decorum policy exists to allow as many voices as possible to be heard at meetings in an orderly manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rules do not silence passionate or critical voices,\u201d Nesbitt told the Star-Telegram in August. \u201cMaintaining order is necessary to serve all constituents efficiently and effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 15, 2026 at 2:51 PM.<\/p>\n

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


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

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

Harriet Ramos covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Texas representative who was ejected from a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting in August and subsequently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-441291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441291","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=441291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}