Sheriff talked of sending wife to retrieve office cameras, destroying hard drive
Whether Sheriff Adam King decided to place his right-hand man on administrative leave for defaming him in a conversation with another commander or because of the chief deputy’s role in spurring a sexual harassment investigation is at the heart of a trial underway in Johnson County.
Legally adjacent is whether the chief deputy's placement on paid leave last summer constituted illicit retaliation or was a legitimate procedural step.
The remark in question, made by Chief Deputy James Saulter, was a definitive declaration that King, who is married, was sleeping with agency office manager Karen Charles, Lt. Richard Hogan testified.
“He is [expletive] her or he was [expletive] her,” Hogan, to whom Saulter was speaking, recalled Saulter’s statement to the jury.
After King’s indictment, Saulter’s leave was lifted by an acting sheriff. King later fired Saulter after the chief deputy failed to show up for a compulsory interview related to an investigation of alleged erroneous timesheets and double-dipping.
King is on trial on an indictment that accuses him of abuse of office related to sexual harassment and retaliation against witnesses. King is accused of retaliating against Saulter for reporting allegations that King sexually harassed sheriff’s office training coordinator Anna Goodloe.
State’s witness Ben Arriola, a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office captain and its acting sheriff, who was called to the stand on Monday afternoon and remained there Tuesday, testified that he believes that Saulter’s leave status was justified and not discipline.
In a prior administration, an employee’s defamatory reference to the sheriff’s “playtoy” - a woman in the office - was met with a swift termination, Arriola testified.
As acting sheriff, if Arriola learned that an employee made a statement similar to Saulter’s about Charles, what course would he take, defense attorney Matt Smid asked.
“I believe I’d put ‘em on leave,” Arriola testified.
Also Tuesday, the trial’s seventh day, Arriola told the jury about two video cameras King placed inside his office, one atop a printer, the other facing the door. King planned to have King’s wife retrieve them after his indictment, Arriola testified.
“I didn’t think him involving her was a great idea,” Arriola said. The captain arranged for the cameras to go to a Texas Department of Public Safety investigator.
King concluded that Saulter was in a conspiracy to get King removed from office, and directed Arriola to view recordings of other cameras in the office to determine who was entering the offices of Saulter and Goodloe.
King had unplugged his computer from its connection to the wall, Arriola testified, and said he planned to obliterate it.
“Once this is over, I’m destroying that hard drive,” King told Arriola.
This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 2:18 PM.
