Trial Underway For School Board Member Ronald Johnson

SMITHFIELD – The trial for Johnston County school board member Ronald Johnson got underway Monday morning in a Smithfield courtroom. Several motions were heard today. Jury selection is expected to get underway on Tuesday.

Johnson was indicted by a Grand Jury in April 2023 for obstruction of justice and willful failure to discharge duties.

Johnson is accused of extorting DeVan Barbour IV, a former candidate for US House in 2022. Johnson, according to the indictment, communicated a threat to Barbour to release a recording in the defendant’s possession of defamatory allegations concerning Mr. Barbour weeks before a primary election in which Barbour was on the ballot. Johnson allegedly threatened to release a recording of Barbour if he did not pressure a woman into recanting her statement she had an affair with Johnson.

Johnson is also charged with failure to discharge his duties as a member of the Johnston County Board of Education, including recording a closed session of a Board of Education meeting in violation of Board duties.

In October 2022, Johnson was fired from his job as a detective with the Smithfield Police Department.

Johnson was elected to the school board in 2016 and won re-election in 2020 and 2024.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. “Johnson was indicted by a Grand Jury in April 2023 for obstruction of justice and willful failure to discharge duties.

    Johnson is accused of extorting DeVan Barbour IV, a former candidate for US House in 2022. Johnson, according to the indictment, communicated a threat to Barbour to release a recording in the defendant’s possession of defamatory allegations concerning Mr. Barbour weeks before a primary election in which Barbour was on the ballot. Johnson allegedly threatened to release a recording of Barbour if he did not pressure a woman into recanting her statement she had an affair with Johnson.

    Johnson is also charged with failure to discharge his duties as a member of the Johnston County Board of Education, including recording a closed session of a Board of Education meeting in violation of Board duties.”

    Won re-election in 2024??? What wrong with the voters?

      • Sheep wore two masks while jabbing themselves with experimental pharmaceuticals because their TV told them to.

        Hey…only two more weeks!

        • Operation Warp Speed was first reported on April 29, 2020 and officially announced on May 15, 2020. Refresh my memory who was president and was proud to push this through..

    • You don’t watch the school board meetings, do you? Most of the people who have been up there are completely useless besides Mr. Johnson. His private life may be a little messy, but he ADVOCATES for our children in schools.

      • Totally agree He has done more for Johnston County than most up there . When he was at Smithfield Middle as SRO he helped a lot of those kids thru bad times He was there for those kids . Others need to clean up their own life before judging his

  3. @bill—ive wondered the same thing about the voters that voted for him. they either did not do their homework on their own or they took the advice from a certain yellow card,

    • Or they have known him for years and know what kind of person he really is….THAT’S why he won the election …AGAIN.
      This has been and is a witch hunt by the “good ole boys” who are still alive and well in JoCo.

      • Have you read the N&O about him.

        What a great guy huh?

        Just a peach.

        He should no where near the school board or our children.

  4. Taking on corrupt and treasonous politicians is not easy. Take them all down Ron. Real patriots know what’s up. Their house of cards is collapsing.

  5. If we took out everyone with a past, we wouldn’t have anyone in office for anything! So a person gets caught, and you didn’t…and that makes it ok for you to slander a person? I think not. There are alot of lies being told by the very people who lied themselves! I could go on here and start throwing names out but I won’t. Ronald Johnson stands for our children and always has..That is what is more important to me.

  7. Ronald is the check and balance of the school board. Believe it or not he is probably the least corrupt.

    • Really now. Who is corrupt and what have they done?

      This loser has had affairs with married teachers. Tried to set up a family man for bribing or blackmail. Used his position as a detective to force people to do things for him.

      Was fired from his job and you idiots voted for him to represent our children.

      Typical from this crowd.

        • Umm, yes. He was fired from his job and there were 33,000 texts between him and the teacher. The information was in the search warrant that was on line.

          So yes.

          I am not nor will ever run or be on the school board.

          So none of you should ever complain about anyone else on here or the board if you defend or vote for this loser.

  8. I pray he takes them all out!!!
    He’s the only one that will stand for our children.

  9. You folks on here defending this clown amaze me. I guess it’s someone else’s fault that he was fired from the police department in addition to all the stuff he’s done here? He is and always has been an absolute disgrace of a man who only cares about himself and his so-called career, even when he started as a police officer. He would walk around putting other officers down and bragging that he would run the department soon, but that didn’t happen so he went the school board route. I’m not particularly enamored with the other school board members either but this dude is NOT the one you all should be counting on at all. I am a conservative but shady is as shady does and I for one hope he gets exactly what he has asked for here.

  10. “Garbage in, garbage out” is the mantra of this man and all the faux Christians who support him and his party.

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