Suspended Sheriff takes the stand in official oppression trial

MONTAGUE COUNTY, Texas (KAUZ) - The official oppression trial for suspended Clay Co. Sheriff Jeffery Lyde continued this Thursday. Lyde has been charged with official oppression related to an alleged unlawful arrest of Landon Goad and Sara Johnson back in 2021.

Goad and Johnson were both brought into jail for assault family violence charges. The pair was arrested on Saturday, July 10, and released the following Tuesday, exceeding the 48-hour period for that offense, according to court documents.

The first person called to take the stand on Thursday was Jeffery Case, a criminal investigator for the 46th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Case testified about an incident in March 2022 in which he felt Lyde was trying to intimidate him while Case tried to retrieve records.

Later in the day, Lyde took the stand. During his testimony, he admitted he failed to ask how long Goad and Johnson were jailed and made an assumption they were arrested on Sunday, July 11. Lyde claimed when staff members informed him of a defect in the probable cause affidavit, he never looked at the form himself.

While on the stand, Lyde admitted to not understanding the ramifications of what could happen if someone is jailed longer than what the law requires for each specific offense. The trial resumes Friday morning in Montague County.