Former Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden investigated Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman over allegations of voter intimidation, according to records obtained by The Star. The case was the only one Hayden, a Republican, ever sent to Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe during his years-long investigation into election fraud. The inquiry never found any election fraud but helped stoke baseless conspiracy theories that the county’s elections were somehow tainted.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, now led by Democrat Byron Roberson, and Howe, a Republican, both confirmed in separate statements last week that Hayden had submitted only one election-related case. Roberson announced last week that he had formally closed the election inquiry. But law enforcement documents provided to The Star in response to a records request now reveal Sherman was the subject of the intimidation investigation. The documents illustrate the extraordinary situation that played out in Johnson County in 2022 as the then-sheriff investigated the county’s top elections official. Howe declined to prosecute Sherman, finding no evidence of a crime….
The records provided on Tuesday include a full narrative report of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office investigation. While the victim’s name is redacted in the newly-provided documents, the case number matches the partial report previously provided to The Star. In the narrative, Det. Kevin Cronister wrote that the alleged victim in an email alleged that during a July 13, 2022, election worker training, Sherman was disregarding her “beliefs as an American voter and election worker” because Sherman had told her she needed to vote in advance or by mail to be a poll worker on Election Day. The alleged victim said she only believed in voting in-person on Election Day. “Having been required by Fred Sherman to choose between my voting rights and his policy, I felt stripped of my rights,” the alleged victim said, according to Cronister’s narrative report….