Allegations of nude videos, blackmail kick off JoCo school board member’s extortion trial
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Sex, blackmail and local politics: The extortion trial of JoCo school board member Ronald Johnson
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A twice-failed candidate for U.S. Congress testified Thursday that Ronald Johnson Jr. sent a “cryptic” text from an out-of-state phone number weeks before the primary election in 2022, telling him that “make-or-break” information about his campaign was about to go public and instructing him to meet behind a Clayton gym.
When he arrived at Clayton Fitness gym, Devan Barbour IV said Johnson, a fellow Republican and member of the Johnston County school board, got into the passenger seat of his pickup and gave him an earbud connected to a cellular phone.
As he listened, Barbour said, he heard Johnson’s voice and then that of Angela Barbour, an unrelated teacher active in Republican politics. At the time, Devan Barbour said, he knew rumors were circulating about his “inappropriate conversation” with the teacher. Later, Angela Barbour would accuse Devan Barbour of repeatedly propositioning her and calling her while standing naked in front of a mirror, according to testimony Thursday.
But in the pickup truck, Barbour said, he learned that Johnson wanted something in exchange for making the recording go away: Get the same school teacher to write a letter denying that she ever had an affair with Johnson.
“I never got the feeling it was anything other than malicious,” Barbour told jurors.
Extortion, obstruction of justice trial
This account unfolded on the first day of Johnson’s trial on charges of extortion, obstruction of justice and willful failure to discharge duties. Along with the blackmail attempt, Johnson is accused of moving evidence out of the office he kept in the Clayton gym.
The case offers the rare picture of a sitting politician defending himself against felony charges. Voters re-elected Johnson in November despite his indictment.
But while the details have trickled out for the last three years, Thursday marked Johnson’s chance to defend himself in public.
“Everyone in the community” knew about Angela Barbour’s “off-and-on” affair with Johnson while both of them were married, said the school board member’s attorney, Amos Tyndall. The teacher was “not very happy” when Johnson broke it off.
“Angela Barbour was very involved in Republican politics,” Tyndall said. “She likes politicians and she likes the political environment. And she liked my client.”
Congressional candidate ‘scared to death’
But rather than threaten Barbour, the candidate, Tyndall said, Johnson tried to warn him that Barbour, the teacher, was telling people he had propositioned her and exposed himself. He told Devan Barbour not to panic and reassured him that he had Angela Barbour’s respect, but he had to get her to stop saying these things.
On the witness stand, Barbour said the conversation inside the truck remained a blur, but he felt “like I was living something outside of a movie.”
“Do you have a lot of meetings with elected officials behind gyms?” special prosecutor Boz Zellinger asked.
“No,” Devan Barbour said.
The former candidate testified he was “scared to death.”
“You name it,” Devan Barbour said. “Forget the campaign. The impact with my family. The impact with my business. My reputation in the community.”
He said he called Angela Barbour soon afterward, and she told him that neither had any recording nor any idea what was going on.
But on cross-examination, Tyndall pressed him on the nature of the inappropriate conversation and what he knew about it.
“Hadn’t she accused you of standing in front of a mirror with your clothes off and calling her?” he asked.
“I have zero recollection of any call like that ever happening,” Devan Barbour said.
Testimony continues Friday and is expected to last into next week.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Allegations of nude videos, blackmail kick off JoCo school board member’s extortion trial."
