McLennan County Sheriff Allegedly Used Taxpayer Funds for Personal Property Upkeep

When Johnathan Crawley graduated from the police academy with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), he looked forward to his promotion as a peace officer after serving as a jailer for two years. Shortly after, Crawley said Sheriff Thomas Parnell McNamara transferred him to work in the Mental Health Unit (MHU), which his uncle and former Captain Chris Eubank oversaw.

Instead of cutting crime, however, he claims McNamara hand-picked him to cut trees and do personal labor on his Bosqueville farm during normal duty hours for years.

“I never had a chance to do my job,” Crawley told Texas Scorecard. “I didn’t get to help the people I signed up to help, because I was over there helping him.”

Now, the Texas Rangers are investigating the sheriff for public corruption. If Crawley’s allegations prove true, his work on McNamara’s property likely cost McLennan County taxpayers well over $200,000.

Looking Back

Although Crawley did not give it much thought when he applied, MCSO’s online job applications each have a unique sentence: “Must maintain personal loyalty to the Sheriff.”

“That loyalty oath means you’re supposed to be loyal to the office and sheriff by being honorable. It doesn’t mean you can be illegal,” said former Chief Deputy David Kilcrease, one of Crawley’s former supervisors.

Matt Cawthon, a former Texas Ranger who helped McNamara win his 2012 election before taking the chief deputy role, was not surprised to learn of this.

“It was a mistake on my part,” Cawthon told Texas Scorecard about helping McNamara. “I understand ethics, and Parnell understands cronyism. I believed in policy. Parnell believed in favors and having a good time.”

Nine officers sued McNamara in 2013. They alleged that immediately upon taking over the MCSO that January, McNamara punished employees who had worked there for years because they supported his opponent. After 18 months of investigation, the MCSO settled for two million dollars, costing McLennan taxpayers $575,000 beyond the county’s insurance coverage. The attorney representing the county said the settlement was not an admission of guilt but came because of a compromise. 

Crawley began working for MCSO as a jailer in 2016 and became a peace officer in 2018, long after Cawthon told the Waco Tribune he resigned in 2014 due to “basic philosophical differences,” including McNamara’s preferential treatment of certain officers. 

Crawley told Texas Scorecard he was unaware of McNamara’s well-documented history of favoritism and retaliation against employees who questioned him. Crawley also said he did not initially realize his work on McNamara’s ranch was illegal. At first, Crawley worked on or close to the gun range, which MCSO employees regularly used. Former Lieutenant Kevin Ferguson claimed he witnessed Crawley cutting trees on the ranch.

“He was clearing out some trees near the road. I guess you could say the trail that leads back to the range,” stated Ferguson. “I passed by, and he was there. He had a chainsaw. He didn’t run from me or anything.”

Then, Crawley claims McNamara had him remove furniture and clutter from an old home he later demolished. Eventually, Crawley said he was tearing down a shed and T-posts on another property in China Spring to build an air-conditioned storage unit. It was nowhere near the firing range.

He said McNamara would call him at odd hours during the day and night from his personal phone instead of going through the normal chain of command.

“I never questioned it because he’s the boss,” said Crawley. “But I never volunteered for it.” 

Then, one day, an MCSO squad car drove over a bridge toward the McNamara property in China Spring, where Crawley was working in front of a “barndominium.”

Parnell’s wife, Charlotte McNamara, yelled at Crawley, “Go, hide in the woods!”

He ran and hid in the woods for 10 minutes.

“What the hell am I hiding for?” Crawley said to himself. “At that point, I was like, ‘Damn dude, this is kind of sketchy.’”

Crawley said he never said anything to McNamara out of fear of termination. However, he claims the MHU became increasingly hostile. He believed his coworkers resented him because he would be gone for several days without explanation.

Amanda Leka, Crawley’s former coworker, told Texas Scorecard they were not angry at him but at the situation. Leka admits the crew teased Crawley about his absences, which upset him.

“We were giving him a hard time about it, like, ‘Hey, don’t forget to check your email or check your timesheet or sign your timesheet!’” said Leka.

Soon after, Leka says that Eubank called the MHU crew into a meeting in his office.

“We were basically told that we needed to worry about ourselves and not worry about anybody else’s time, you know, ‘We work for the sheriff, if the sheriff says to go cut trees, then we go cut trees, that’s who we work for, it doesn’t matter,’” Leka told Texas Scorecard.

Eubank declined to comment, but Ferguson confirmed he attended the meeting.

“I said, ‘I work for the Mental Health Unit. Yes, I work for the sheriff’s department, but I’m not cutting trees for nobody,’” claimed Leka. “I was pulled to the side and told, ‘You work for the sheriff, we do what the sheriff tells us to do,’ and I was like, ‘OK, whatever, I don’t care, whatever. If Crawley wants special treatment because of who he is, I could care less.’ So that’s how it was left. So, from that point forward, we just didn’t say anything to Crawley, but we would still tell [former Sergeant Brad] Bond, ‘Hey, this shit ain’t fair.’”

Bond declined to return requests for comment.

“I’ve never known anybody who has needed so much damn fence fixing. I mean, I got land too, but damn!” Leka said. She eventually resigned and returned to the Lacy Lakeview Police Department.

Kilcrease also claims he warned McNamara he could be jailed if word spread that he was using MCSO staff for personal property renovations. 

In response to these allegations, McNamara told KWTX that Leka, Kilcrease, and Ferguson were “disgruntled ex-employees who would do anything to make me look bad.”

Yet, McNamara spoke well of Kilcrease to KWTX a year earlier after his sudden retirement announcement. KWTX noted that Kilcrease’s resignation, which was effective immediately, “combined with the number of sheriff’s office employees who have left recently had many wondering.” 

Crawley said he believes McNamara terminated Kilcrease because he raised questions about the ranch. 

Kilcrease confirmed that McNamara fired him but disputed Crawley’s claim. Kilcrease said McNamara terminated him shortly after he disclosed his diagnosis of an aortic aneurysm, forcing him to retire at the end of 2023. Kilcrease added that he had needed time to arrange his finances, as he had not anticipated being out of the workforce due to his health.

However, he did believe there were some additional unspoken reasons for his termination. According to Kilcrease, Cody Blossman—a former lieutenant who reported directly to McNamara and led the fugitive unit—worked with Charlotte McNamara to remove anybody in their way. He claimed Blossman had targeted him because he disagreed with Blossman over ethical issues and pointed out the high turnover rate of high-ranking employees at MCSO.

Kilcrease said Parnell and Charlotte McNamara, Blossman, and Eubank attended a meeting where Charlotte told Parnell that he had to fire Kilcrease that day, despite Parnell’s reservations.

“Of course, they don’t document those meetings,” Kilcrease wrote to Texas Scorecard. “Now, I consider myself lucky to be away from it all.”

The day he got fired, Kilcrease said Blossman stopped by his office to say, “Now we’re even.”

Kilcrease shared his termination letter. Though unformatted, it states the termination was “Effective on 01/23/2023@16:58 hours [4:58 PM]” and bears McNamara’s signature on MCSO letterhead. Two hours after getting fired, Kilcrease said McNamara called him and said, “I didn’t want things to happen this way.” McNamara told him he could submit a resignation letter dated that same day to keep his pension. Kilcrease turned it in the next day, and it became the official story.

Months later, Blossman became chief deputy after interim Chief Deputy Steve January died of cancer only four months into the position. 

Blossman now supervises the MHU, Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and the administrative departments where Crawley, Kilcrease, Leka, Ferguson, and Eubank all once worked.

Kilcrease told Texas Scorecard he believes McNamara chose Crawley to keep his uncle in line.

Crawley’s presence on McNamara’s property remained an open secret for years. 

“Everybody knew,” said Crawley. “The majority of those people that are working there know what I did, and even the people that already left know what I did.”

The Incident

A chunk of wood flew under Crawley’s eyelid on June 15, 2022 as he cut trees with a chainsaw. Crawley explained Sheriff McNamara never provided him with protective equipment or work tools. Even the chainsaw was Crawley’s personal property. He also claims McNamara never paid him for that day. McNamara insisted Crawley turn in his regular county timecards as a deputy, just as he had done for the past three years.

“You’re putting this on your timesheet, right?” McNamara allegedly told him each time he went to work. 

Crawley’s timesheet shows he worked eight hours on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, although it does not state when. 

Crawley’s weekly call sheet—a call log showing times when officers report in—shows strange hours of activity for the 13th and 14th. Crawley was paid eight hours each day.

However, according to call-in and call-out times on the sheet, which Crawley claims was regularly doctored, he worked over 30 hours in two days. Notably, on both days someone else actually called out for him, lending credence to Crawley’s allegations.

Additionally, Crawley said he never worked the 16th as he recovered, and that he used paid time off for the 17th. The timesheet reflects eight hours of pay on the 16th and a vacation day on the 17th.

His retired supervisor, Lt. Lionel McGee, signed off on the timesheet. McGee declined to comment on whether he was instructed to falsify the document.

Crawley’s medical records also show that his injury occurred on the 15th, when he claimed to have worked as a deputy according to KWTX.

Crawley claims McNamara never offered to cover any medical bills, which cost him over $1,000. McNamara also allegedly told him not to file a worker’s compensation claim. Crawley explained that it would have exposed McNamara’s illegal actions.

Crawley told Texas Scorecard that McNamara ordered him back to his farm only days after the injury. He never asked Crawley how he was or apologized for the incident.

Crawley also stated that McNamara never gave him any gifts or tips for his work.

However, Crawley claims that McNamara paid two others who worked with him by check. Just as he had with his equipment, Crawley brought these individuals to complete the work.

Crawley said McNamara claims, in his defense, that he has canceled checks for paying Crawley, but he never specified to whom they were paid. “I’d like to see them if he has them,” said Crawley.

According to his KWTX interview, McNamara confirmed he had Crawley work at the gun range on his ranch, but said Crawley only cleaned up lead from spent ammunition.

The Range

McNamara often hosts events where friends and family members shoot fully automatic weapons and destroy old cars at the gun range on his farm. He also allows MCSO to train there.

An email from Chief Deputy Cody Blossman explained that MCSO uses McNamara’s private firing range due to limited availability at the Waco Police Department’s range.

The MCSO could not provide a contract or memorandum of understanding regarding this agreement beyond referencing a 1996 MOU between Waco and McLennan County. However, that MOU–drafted 16 years before McNamara became sheriff–does not reference McNamara’s ranch. It also states the firing range may use “labor performed by participants in the Sheriff’s Prisoners Utilization Release System,” but not county sheriff’s officers, for construction or maintenance services. 

Ferguson also expressed doubt that Crawley cleaned the range. “Our deputies, when they would go out to training, it was their responsibility, at the end of every day, they cleaned up after themselves, they took all the trash with them. I had a sergeant and corporal under me who made sure that happened. My firearms instructors would all go out there, take care of things. So, when it came to training, we took care of everything.”

Blossman declined to answer questions from Texas Scorecard, including why McNamara had Crawley on the range when Sergeant Mike Ochoa was responsible for cleaning it.

Blossman deferred to the sheriff in his reply: “Because the Sheriff is the elected official for the department, the department believes it is his place to address these issues.”

“I worked with Mike Ochoa once or twice cutting tree limbs, that’s it,” said Crawley.

Ochoa’s timesheet also showed him working on June 15, 2022. 

“I don’t know why Crawley would be there, honestly,” stated Ferguson, who directly supervised Ochoa. “It was Ochoa’s job to make sure the range–both the Waco range and Parnell’s range–were left like you found them cleaned up, that was his task.”

Crawley Resigns

Crawley said the final straw for him came when patrol officer Ben Toombs stopped him for suspicion of drunken driving on May 12, 2023.

In the police dashcam video, Toombs claimed Crawley ran a red light and “turned into the wrong lane” of traffic.

Despite stating he could smell alcohol, Toombs did not detain, arrest, or cite Crawley. Toombs repeatedly told Crawley “it’s not a big deal,” but did make him get his wife to drive him home.

Crawley asked for Toombs’ name with the intent of filing a complaint. “You’re making the wrong move,” Crawley told Toombs.

Toombs did not recognize Crawley or his role in the sheriff’s office after pulling him over. Crawley told Toombs he worked in “mental health and CID.” Also, he knew a captain in the force: his uncle Chris Eubank.

Crawley shows belligerence as Toombs asks his wife to move Crawley’s vehicle out of the driveway of the bank in which he pulled over and into an appropriate parking spot.

The video contains multiple seconds in which either Toombs’ mic is muted, or Crawley and Toombs are together without sound.

Crawley told Texas Scorecard he was not drunk. He turned in his resignation letter the next day, he said, because he was experiencing significant stress.

Crawley believes he may have been set up, as Toombs got promoted to CID afterward. Records show McNamara selected him for CID on November 22, effective December 10, 2023.

Nevertheless, according to Crawley, only weeks after his resignation, McNamara called to offer him $20 an hour for ranch work. He also called to meet for breakfast at Griff’s to discuss getting his job back. Crawley needed a job but did not want to return to the MCSO.

Unbeknownst to McNamara, Crawley had already met that summer with Sherry Beard, a former MCSO captain who resigned in 2021. She also invited Crawley’s wife, his uncle Chris Eubank, former supervisor David Kilcrease, and former Captain Pam Whitlock to discuss various ethical issues with MCSO.

Whitlock declined to comment on this story.

Beard had suggested that Crawley contact an attorney. Crawley confirmed that he and his wife had approached several, but claimed many have refused to take his case for fear of confronting the sheriff.

Matt Cawthon said local lawyers will not take the case because McNamara is too powerful. 

Eventually, Crawley found an attorney in Dallas. 

Beard could not be reached for comment after multiple attempts.

The Story Comes Out

Bernadette Feazell, a Waco blogger who posts local news, critical opinions, and “reader rants” about public officials, told Texas Scorecard Beard approached her to draw attention to Crawley’s story.

Feazell said she went to the FBI with Beard and sent formal complaints to the Texas Rangers and District Attorney Josh Tetens. According to Feazell, Tetens sat on the complaint for months.

When asked about this claim or the investigation, Tetens wrote, “I’m not able to comment at this time about this matter.”

Concerned that nobody would listen to her, Feazell penned a grand jury letter as a last resort. The foreperson was also named Bernadette, and Feazell believed this was a good omen.

Soon after, the grand jury requested an investigation, and the Texas Rangers announced their investigation into McNamara. This led to the original KWTX article. 

The news came as a shock to county citizens who venerate McNamara. Dubbed “America’s Sheriff” – a title shared by Mike Carona, David Clarke, and Mark Lamb – McNamara has also graced the cover of Texas Monthly six times and allegedly inspired and advised on the movie “Hell or High Water,” which his nephew Taylor Sheridan wrote and directed.

Regarding Crawley’s allegations, McNamara told KWTX that Crawley was a “known liar” and accused him of being drunk when he was pulled over. 

In response to these remarks, Crawley explained that Toombs never gave him any physical tests to determine whether he was driving under the influence. He also said that the texts and phone records he has provided the FBI and Texas Rangers show otherwise.

Crawley said McNamara used a personal phone to contact his own personal phone. They never used work phones or emails, explaining why nothing came up in a records request.

“I was really surprised when I read that, because Parnell should know that he has just got himself a civil lawsuit by saying that publicly,” Kilcrease said. “If the guy is a ‘known liar,’ why would you have him out on your property working? Why would you even have him in your employment as a peace officer?”

Feazell alleged McNamara used his influence to silence the sudden unfavorable local news media. She wrote that McNamara called KWTX to get managing editor and investigative reporter Tommy Witherspoon removed from covering the case after he asked about the investigation during a press conference.

Notably, KWTX later released a “clipped” version of the press interview, omitting Witherspoon’s questions about the Texas Rangers’ investigation at the end. 

Only the full version on KCEN TV includes Witherspoon’s questions, to which McNamara flatly replied “No.”

In the months following the conference, KWTX has published only two stories referencing McNamara. Witherspoon covered neither. Now, his work primarily covers the courthouse.

Witherspoon declined to comment on the situation. KWTX also declined to comment.

Despite the increased news coverage, Ferguson, Leka, Kilcrease, and Feazell say the Texas Rangers have not contacted them.

When asked to comment, Texas DPS Sergeant Ryan Howard wrote, “This is an active, ongoing investigation with the Texas Rangers. At this time, no additional information is available.”

As for the “disgruntled ex-employees,” they deny trying to harm McNamara.

“I’m not wanting to make him look bad, and as a matter of fact, I feel sorry for Parnell because he is a good man, he has a good heart. But he let the wrong people manipulate him to their favor, and it cost him, in my opinion, it’s costing him his legacy, his career,” said Ferguson.

Leka echoed similar sentiments, “I don’t have anything against McNamara personally, but I don’t believe the way that he runs the sheriff’s department is correct.”

Cawthon, who has not spoken with McNamara since they parted ways, said, “He’s a nice guy, don’t get me wrong, but he is all about the favors.”

Although he now has a better-paying security job, Crawley told Texas Scorecard the experience has tainted his view of law enforcement, a career he trained for and thought he would love.

“It still affects me mentally,” Crawley said. “It wore me down.”

Meanwhile, McNamara won the recent general election, in which he was uncontested.

When asked for an interview, McNamara wrote, “No Response at this time.”