JoCo school board member wanted threesome, had lover followed, according to trial testimony
The former principal of Clayton High School testified Tuesday that a Johnston County school board member, on trial for extortion, asked him to reassign a former police officer’s two children with special needs in an apparent act of retaliation.
Bennett Jones, principal until 2022, said in court Tuesday that Ronald Johnson Jr., a school board member, asked him casually about the procedures for reassigning students, then brought the matter up more dramatically once negative news about him surfaced online.
In a phone conversation that Jones recorded, Johnson named two students, both sons of Owen Phillips, Johnson’s former colleague in the Smithfield Police Department. In the recording jurors heard Tuesday, Johnson accused Phillips of “saying all this crazy s--- and giving it to that dude,” in reference to a Facebook Live broadcast for which Johnson suspected Phillips was the negative source.
Both of the children Johnson named have autism and were studying in a special program at Clayton High, which Jones learned when he investigated and ultimately declined to grant the request to reassign them.
“He didn’t give me a reason,” Jones said, “other than they were coming at him hard.”
Johnson, a Republican, was re-elected to his third term on the school board in November despite a felony charge of extortion and misdemeanor charges of obstruction of justice and willful failure to discharge duties. The extortion charge carries a penalty of 10 to 41 months.
Friend testifies Ronald Johnson wanted to have a threesome
Until Tuesday, testimony in Johnson’s extortion trial had largely focused on his affair with a longtime teacher and his 2022 conversation with a candidate for Congress, in which he sought to conceal that affair.
Twice-failed candidate DeVan Barbour IV testified last week that Johnson met him in his pickup parked behind a Clayton gym, then handed him an earbud connected to his phone, which played a recording.
That recording included a snippet of a conversation with Angela Barbour, the teacher, and an “inappropriate conversation” Johnson warned could make or break the candidate’s campaign. Also on the recording, Johnson said he could make the recording disappear if DeVan Barbour would get Angela Barbour to sign a letter saying their affair had never happened.
Angela Barbour and DeVan Barbour are not related.
Johnson’s defense has argued that the school board member was trying to help DeVan Barbour the candidate and that Angela Barbour was highly distraught their affair was coming to an end.
But last week, Angela Barbour testified Johnson asked her to have sex with candidate Barbour and record it, and also seek out any other negative information to use.
On Tuesday, Johnston County teacher Amy Cayton said Angela Barbour told her about her affair with Johnson, and she often acted as the “alibi” when the two got together. Later, she said, Angela Barbour told her Johnson wanted her to participate in a “threesome” with Cayton, which she declined to her friend’s dismay.
School board member stakes out teacher, calls her crazy
Later Tuesday, Owen Phillips testified he and Johnson served in the same squad on the Smithfield Police Department before Phillips joined the Clayton force.
Phillips helped out on campaigns for school board, but he said Johnson would ask him to do things that were “somewhat iffy.”
In one case, Johnson asked him to repeatedly drive past a house in a Clayton subdivision, using his wife’s car because his own Jeep was too noticeable.
In another, Phillips said, he was instructed to watch an apartment because Johnson got a complaint that a teacher and a student were having an inappropriate relationship. Phillips said he watched the teacher leave with a man in a red car, and he followed them to a nearby bar.
He took pictures at Johnson’s request, but told the school board member the man appeared to be too old to be a student. Johnson arrived at the bar, Phillips said, and asked him to go inside for a take-out order and try to get more pictures. He then said to never mind because he would do it himself.
Later, Phillips said, he learned the woman was Angela Barbour.
Phillips said Johnson told him the teacher was “obsessed with him,” and he asked Phillips to try and date her. Phillips agreed but didn’t follow through because Johnson had said she was crazy.
“I’m not going to bring that crazy on myself,” he said.
Learning the truth about an affair
Phillips said he would later communicate with Angela Barbour through Snapchat and meet her in a Clayton park, where he learned the truth about her affair with Johnson. Phillips would also learn about Johnson’s attempt to have his children transferred and blocked the school board member’s calls.
He sent a complaint to the head of the school board, he said, and the children were not moved.
In January 2021, Phillips was indicted on charges of making and selling testosterone. He avoided jail time by agreeing to complete a drug diversion program and surrendering his law enforcement certification, according to the Johnston County Report.
Testimony continues Wednesday.