Jeffrey Lyde indicted on new charges

HENRIETTA, Texas (KAUZ) - A Clay County grand jury indicted suspended sheriff Jeffrey Lyde on Monday for two new charges, as well as two different charges from 2021.

The new charges include two counts of official oppression and two counts of tampering with a governmental record.

The official oppression charges come after Lyde is alleged to have kept two people jailed unlawfully after a magistrate had determined there was no probable cause for their arrest.

The tampering with a governmental record charges allege Lyde concealed and impaired the availability of an “affidavit for warrant of arrest and detention” of the two people who were jailed. The affidavit reportedly found no probable cause for their arrests existed.

Lyde was suspended as Clay County sheriff in late February of 2023 by Judge Lee Gabrielle, senior justice of the Texas Second Court of Appeals. The motion will stand until a decision is made on a petition to remove him from office.

The petition came following charges filed against Lyde for official oppression in early January of 2023.

Former constable Sydney Kirk Horton was chosen as interim sheriff by Judge Gabrielle from a pool of eight people.