North Carolina school board member gets prison time after obstruction, extortion convictions

SMITHFIELD, N.C. (AP) — A central North Carolina local school board member was sentenced to active prison time after being convicted of extortion and other crimes, with some related to the attempted blackmail of a congressional candidate.

At the close of a trial Friday, jurors found Ronald Lee Johnson Jr. guilty of four counts. Superior Court Judge Joseph Crosswhite sentenced Johnson to 6 to 17 months in prison for a felony obstruction conviction, court records show. The sentence for a felony extortion count and two counts for the willful failure to discharge his duties included probation.

Crosswhite also ordered that Johnson, 41, be removed from the Johnston County school board, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported. Johnson, once considered a rising star among Republicans, had narrowly won reelection in November.

The court also revoked Johnson’s law enforcement certification. Johnson is a former Smithfield police officer who was fired in late 2022 on charges of “detrimental personal conduct,” the newspaper reported.

Boz Zellinger, a special state prosecutor who handled the prosecution, told Crosswhite that Johnson “has left a wake of destruction behind him” and that active prison time was warranted.

Johnson had been accused of threatening in 2022 to release compromising audio involving congressional candidate DeVan Barbour unless Barbour got a woman that they both knew to falsely deny that she was having an extramarital affair with Johnson.

Barbour, a unsuccessful Republican candidate in 2022 and 2024, testified in the trial that concerns about the recording’s release worried him constantly leading to the 2022 GOP primary, and that he repeatedly contacted the woman asking her to deny an affair with Johnson.

While on the witness stand Thursday, Johnson denied asking Barbour to get a statement from the woman, but rather he let Barbour know about the recording to help him out.

“He didn’t release any recording or make any public statements about Mr. Barbour,” Johnson attorney Amos Tyndall said.

The obstruction of justice charge stems from allegations Johnson removed potential evidence from his office at a gym after the investigation had begun.

The convictions on failure to discharge duties relate to secret recordings of school board sessions closed to the public and allegations that Johnson retaliated against a former friend by trying to get his children transferred to a different school. The school board previously censured Johnson over the recording of closed-session meetings and the attempted transfer.

The Associated Press