Former Democratic state Rep. Lon Burnam was arrested during an extremely heated argument at a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting concerning a plan to reduce the number of polling locations for the midterm elections. He was then released from jail sometime around midnight. “I didn’t get home until after midnight, and I’m old,” Burnam said the day after the incident. “I’m 73 years old and I’m tired, but the show must go on.”
Burnam was booked into the local jail on charges of disrupting a meeting or procession, according to information released by the Tarrant County Jail. The offense is considered a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a potential maximum sentence of 180 days in jail, a fine of up to $2,000 or both. A spokesperson for the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office spoke with local media and said no case concerning Burnam has been submitted to the office.
The sheriff’s office also put out a statement addressing the situation. “As an agency we have procedures requiring us to file charges within 5 days for a misdemeanor and 10 days for a felony. A charge will be filed and the case assigned to a detective within that timeframe.” Looking beyond the criminal case, Burnam told the Texas Tribune that he was in the “very early stages” of consulting with a legal team about potentially suing Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare over his arrest.
The report revealed that the Texas Tribune reached out to O’Hare’s office for a comment, but did not receive a response. Burnam’s arrest came after the North Texas county commissioners’ meeting to consider the removal of almost half of the voting sites had been going on for several hours. Those in favor of the reduction said that the goal is to save money.
Democratic critics of the plan, such as Commissioner Alisa Simons, who is challenging O’Hare for his position in November — stated that “this is the GOP’s plan to hold on to their seats.” The controversial idea came about after recent changes that allegedly impact black and Latino representation in the county were made, such as the redrawing of district maps.
While the vast majority of elected positions in the county are filled by Republicans, Democrat Taylor Rehmet managed to pull off a staggering upset in a special election to take a Texas Senate seat. During the meeting, dozens of individuals opposed to the closures showed up and expressed their belief that it was a voter suppression tactic and that it lacked transparency.
Burnam, who represented a part of the county in the Texas House from 1997 to 2015, was one of them. “I was a big fan of all the legislation that Lyndon Johnson signed into law, and they’ve been chipping away at the Voting Rights Act,” he said in an interview with the Tribune. “This was just something that I had to act on.”
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Burnam slammed the proposed cuts during the meeting. He also picked up the microphone while delivering his comments to show support for a previous speaker who was booted from the meeting for doing the same thing. When O’Hare, speaking from the dais, told Burnam to put down the microphone, he ignored him and kept speaking.
“Please remove him,” O’Hare went on to say. “We will go into recess because you’re disrupting the meeting again.” Burnam wouldn’t leave, which ultimately led to his removal by four sheriff deputies who hauled him off the floor and carried him out of the room by his arms and legs. Burnam told the Tribune that he plans on attending another meeting to discuss the conditions of the local jail.