A newly released search warrant gives additional details about the case against Johnston County school board member Ronald Johnson, who is under indictment on charges of extortion, obstruction of justice and failing to perform his duties.
Johnson “has a history of making and sharing recordings of others without their knowledge privately and publicly,” according to court documents. They say Johnson, a former Smithfield police detective, asked people to use hidden recording devices, conduct surveillance and even have sex with others to help him gain political “leverage.”
The information was being gathered, the documents say, “to influence others to make, not make or assist” Johnson in accomplishing political goals such as becoming the chair of the Johnston Board of Education. Johnson fell one vote shy in December of being elected board chair.
The details appear in a Johnston County District Attorney’s investigator’s application for a warrant requesting that Apple turn over Johnson’s electronic records.
Johnson’s attorney, Walter Schmidlin, did not immediately a phone call to comment on the case. Johnson continues to serve on the board, although he was fired by Smithfield police in October for “detrimental personal conduct.”
Johnson, a Republican, was first elected to the school board in 2016. His term runs until 2024.
Asked to spy on teacher
The December search warrant provides new details about the 2019 controversy over the athletic program at Clayton High School. It also offers more details about allegations that Johnson tried to transfer two special-needs students out of Clayton High.
Johnson asked Owen Phillips, a friend from the days when they were on the Smithfield Police Department together, to follow Angela Barbour and take photos of the teacher meeting an adult student at a restaurant.
In January 2021, Phillips had been indicted on charges of making and selling testosterone. But Phillips avoided jail time by agreeing to complete a drug diversion program and surrendering his law enforcement certification, according to the Johnston County Report.
The reason Johnson gave for following Barbour was that he believed she was seeing a student inappropriately.
Barbour said in an online message Friday that she had met the former student because he wanted to give her an invitation to his wedding.
Barbour is at the heart of the investigation. She has told investigators about Johnson having an extramarital affair with her before their relationship fell apart. Investigators obtained hotel receipts and records of text messages and phone calls between the two.
Barbour has told investigators that Johnson gave her a phone and asked her to record DeVan Barbour IV or have sex with him. Angela Barbour and DeVan Barbour, who was a 2022 Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, are not related.
Johnson allegedly met with DeVan Barbour in a pickup behind a Clayton gym shortly before the 2022 GOP primary election and threatened to expose a recording of an “incident” involving Barbour and the teacher.
In exchange for silence, Johnson wanted Barbour to compel Angela Barbour to sign a statement saying she had lied about her affair with Johnson, according to court documents.
Angela Barbour said she couldn’t discuss the DeVan Barbour allegations because she didn’t want to jeopardize the investigation.
‘Get dirt on people’
The documents say Johnson later tried to set up Phillips and Barbour to date. But Phillips said he recognized Barbour from the time Johnson had asked him to follow her.
“Owen Phillips contacted her concerned to share what Ronald Johnson was doing,” the document say. “Owen Phillips asked Angela to meet at a park to talk and Ronald Johnson immediately called her making Owen and Angela suspect he was able to track and monitor who Angela was talking to.”
Angela Barbour said Phillips’ actions “saved me from Ronald’s misdeeds.”
The documents say Johnson asked Phillips to do other favors, including buying a prepaid phone.
Phillips told investigators that Johnson “bragged” about having intimate pictures of “prominent people to use when he needed something.”
“Owen believed him based on Ronald’s actions, intense ambition for higher public office and things Ronald did to get dirt on people,” according to the court document.
Relationship sours over ‘suspicious requests’
But Phillips’ relationship with his friend deteriorated over “Ronald Johnson’s suspicious requests.”
Johnson, while presumably on duty as a police officer, would go to Planet Fitness in Smithfield and stare at Phillips, according to the documents. Phillips also told investigators that Johnson was following him in his assigned police car.
It culminated on July 1 in Johnson asking Bennett Jones, then the principal of Clayton High, to transfer Phillips’ two children out of the school “as a favor.”
Jones recorded the meeting with Johnson and played it to the investigator. When Jones mentioned that the students were Phillips’ children, Johnson responded ‘he has flipped the script and going hard at me dude.’”
The school board censured Johnson over the attempted Clayton High transfer. It’s also cited in the indictment as one of the charges of failing to exercise his duty as a school board member.
According to court documents, Johnson said at a Nov. 3 public forum that the transfer request was based upon text messages he received that Phillips was mentally, emotionally and physically an abuser.
But the investigator said he confirmed no report of abuse, neglect or dependency was ever made related to Phillips’ children. In addition, court documents say, the mother of Phillips’ children reported no abuse issues.
“She has shared custody of the children with Owen Phillips without issue,” court documents say. “She was upset by the attention and lack of honesty Mr. Johnson displayed when discussing this matter publicly.”
Phillips did not return a telephone message from The N&O requesting comment.
Clayton High investigation
The documents also indicate Johnson played a larger than previously known role in the 2019 investigation into Clayton High’s athletic program.
According to the documents, Johnson met with Jones in May 2019 to share information on student grades, which is a violation of federal education privacy laws. The information was later shared with other school board members, leading to an investigation into academic eligibility of athletes at the school.
“Despite being the person to bring forward allegations against Clayton High School and their principal Dr. Bennett Jones, Mr. Johnson would later advocate for Dr. Jones during this investigation and take issue with then superintendent Dr. Ross Renfrow’s handling of the matter,” the court documents say.
“Dr. Jones stated in an interview that he reluctantly accepted Mr. Johnson’s support because he felt that Mr. Johnson was involved in starting the investigation into Clayton High School but ultimately Ronald Johnson changed his mind to get votes for his re-election in 2020.”
Jones received a settlement of $53,000 in a grievance he filed against the school district. Johnson was the only school board who received personal immunity in the settlement after he turned over audio recordings to Jones’ attorney.
In October 2022, then school board chair Todd Sutton publicly apologized to both Jones and head football coach Hunter Jenks, saying neither man had done anything wrong.
Jones, who is now director of the N.C. Teaching Fellows program, declined comment Friday because he said he may be called in as a witness in the case.
“I stand by what I told the investigator and plan to cooperate with the authorities,” Jones said in an interview.
‘Directed the secret recordings’
During the investigation into Johnson, Smithfield Police located copies of recordings facilitated by Johnson using a camera concealed inside a key fob.
One of the recordings is of Carolyn Rontondaro, a school district central office employee, meeting with the school board’s attorney to discuss the Clayton High investigation. After the meeting, the court documents say Johnson called Rontondaro to remind her that she is still recording and to meet him at the graveyard, where the recording stops.
Johnson’s police-issued computer had copies of Rontondaro’s personal records and an image of an email that she was drafting to send to Human Resources complaining about Jones. The investigator said Rontondaro told him she was considering legal action against the school district.
Rontondaro did not return an online message Friday from The News & Observer requesting comment.
“It is evident that Mr. Johnson was operating outside of his duties and responsibilities as a Board of Education member when he provided equipment, he instructed Mrs. Rontondaro in the operation of a concealed camera, and directed the secret recordings obtained by Ms. Rontondaro,” the documents say.
