A Texas sheriff whose jail is holding Clearview AI co-founder and whistleblower Charles Johnson is himself under felony indictment for sexual harassment, witness retaliation, and aggravated perjury, raising new questions about law enforcement integrity in a case already shot through with concerns over surveillance, civil liberties, and official abuse.
In a startling turn of events, Johnson County Sheriff Adam King found himself behind bars in his own jurisdiction after deputies arrested him in August. This came after a probe by the Texas Rangers, which exposed allegations of King harassing female staff members and intimidating those who reported him. As reported by Fox 4 Dallas, a grand jury has since added a third charge of aggravated perjury, on top of two felony retaliation charges and a sexual harassment accusation. The latest charge stems from claims that King provided false testimony to the grand jury regarding his actions.
At his arraignment, King entered a plea of not guilty. The presiding judge scheduled his trial for August 3, 2026, and allowed King to resume his duties under strict conditions while the legal process continues.
Per the court’s directive, King’s office attendance is restricted to three days a week, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. He is required to use a private entrance and is prohibited from interacting with seven specific witnesses, many of whom are employees or alleged victims. Court documents referenced by Fox 4 highlight accusations against King, which include making inappropriate comments about female employees’ weight, appearance, and attire, encouraging them to wear makeup, and offering benefits to married women in exchange for personal time. Explicit remarks attributed to him include telling a woman that continued weight loss would lead him to “do ungodly things to her” and bragging about past actions towards women in white pants.
King’s behavior allegedly extended to fixating on female employees, such as staring at one staff member’s feet after instructing her to move back for a better view. He reportedly hosted weekly all-female gatherings where he made crude jokes, such as, “Don’t tell people/your husbands, the sheriff puts his cream in your tea.” Additionally, King is accused of bestowing perks like lunches, jewelry, and exclusive office access to married women, as well as conducting lengthy one-on-one meetings behind closed doors.
During one such gathering, King allegedly repeated the inappropriate tea-time remark and later threatened those who reported his actions, going so far as to warn one woman of arrest.
Adding to the department’s woes, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, now under scrutiny, is the same entity that detained Charles Johnson, co-founder of the controversial facial-recognition company Clearview AI. This firm is embroiled in intense legal and ethical debates over widespread biometric surveillance. Recent posts on X reveal that Johnson is currently back in custody, having spent 18 days in the very facility managed by the scandal-plagued sheriff.
As detailed in the Substack report “Going Clearview: Inside Charles Johnson’s Legal Battle with His Former Company,” Johnson helped launch Clearview in 2017 alongside Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, then later sued them in federal court in New York in Johnson v. Clearview AI, et al. over his ownership stake and his ouster from the company.
The piece notes that Johnson has repeatedly warned about Clearview’s alleged “extractive and invasive” business model and opposed providing its facial-recognition tools to foreign governments for targeting civilians, describing the firm as a “criminal enterprise” he no longer wants to be associated with.
The same article recounts how Johnson told Judge Katherine Polk Failla that he had been contacted by federal authorities regarding Clearview, and that he is under court pressure to stop publicly talking about the case or posting about it on social media. A previous update from Johnson’s own Substack describes his ongoing professional and legal battles and frames his dispute with Clearview as part of a broader fight over the weaponization of AI surveillance against ordinary citizens.
The fact that a key figure in these surveillance and corruption scandals is now detained in a jail overseen by an indicted sheriff—charged with perjury and retaliating against whistleblowers—underscores the troubling overlap of government authority, police misconduct, and advanced surveillance tech.
