News

The Donley County Sheriff’s Office has found no witnesses or suspects in its investigation of a reported abduction attempt at Bronco Stadium last Friday night, August 24.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said a 14-year-old Panhandle girl reported she had left the stadium through the east gate after the game and was grabbed by someone as she walked up Allen Street toward the southeast corner of the stadium. The girl said she got away from the person, and Donley County EMS examined the girl that night.

The girl suffered no injuries, and school camera footage captured no incident, Blackburn said. No witnesses have been located, and no suspects have been identified.
Blackburn said Tuesday the investigation was still continuing, and he urged people to always be cautious.

“Parents need to always do their due diligence to know where their children are, and kids need to always pay attention to their surroundings,” the sheriff said.

Clarendon College will celebrate its 125th anniversary next Tuesday, and plans are being made to observe the milestone throughout the school year.

The Texas Panhandle’s first college was established as Clarendon College & University Training School and opened its doors on September 5, 1898, under the guidance of the Methodist church conference.

As a Methodist college, CC actually became a four-year institution for a short time before the church conference shifted its support to what is now McMurry University in 1927.
At that time, Clarendon College became a public institution and was managed by Clarendon ISD through the school board before a separate college district was created in the 1960s. CC moved to its present campus in 1968.

Today, Clarendon College offers classes in Pampa, Childress, Amarillo, Shamrock, and Canyon in addition to courses on the home campus. Many students also enjoy the opportunities CC provides through dual credit classes in high schools and through classes online.

CC President Tex Buckhaults said the college will hold a celebration on Saturday, September 9, as the official kick-off to the anniversary observations.

A public meet and greet will be held at the Vera Dial Dickey Library from 2 to 4 p.m. that day. Light refreshments and snacks will be served, and the library will have on display some of the history and artifacts of the college’s past.

The evening of September 9 will feature an invitation-only event at the Bairfield Activity Center for donors, former members of the board of regents, and other dignitaries, Buckhaults said.
On September 27, the college is inviting all former coaches and volleyball players to attend the volleyball game that day.

Former basketball coaches and players will be invited to games on November 14, and former softball and baseball players and coaches will be invited to ballgames on April 27.

Additional plans call for a dinner theatre, and the striking of an commemorative coin for the 125th anniversary. The college rodeo team may also incorporate anniversary observations during its NFR send-off next year.

Buckhaults said the college also plans to raise funds to replace trees on the campus that have been lost over the years.

Graduation festivities in May will cap off the year’s celebrations, the president said.

For more information about these or other events, contact Clarendon College at 806-874-3571.

City Manager Brian Barboza of Knox City will take over as Clarendon’s new city administrator October 2 following last week’s regular meeting of the City Council.

Aldermen concluded several months of searching for the next administrator with a unanimous vote on August 10 to offer the job to Barboza , who was an early finalist for the job in January. He will succeed City Administrator David Dockery, who will retire at the end of this fiscal year.

Barboza , is an alumnus of Clarendon College; and, in a letter to city officials accepting the position, he expressed his pleasure at being offered the job and said he looks forward to coming to Clarendon.

“I am delighted to have been selected to serve as the City Administrator for such a fine city like Clarendon,” Barboza wrote. “The opportunity to return to Clarendon, not as a student but, in a leadership role in the community to serve the citizens and help shape the visions of the Mayor and City Council is an honor. I am looking forward to being a part of shaping the community’s future and achieving great things and calling Clarendon home.”

In other city business, the council approved an amendment to Ordinance 501, increasing water and sewer rates by three percent effective October 1, and also approved a measure to increase gate fees at the Citizens Convenience Center by 50 percent following increases in charges by Waste Connections.

A proposal from Cater Sand & Gravel was accepted to replace the wooden posts on the awning at 104 S. Kearney with square steel tubing was approved.

Aldermen approved a request to close Fourth and Gorst streets near the Donley County Senior Citizens for the August 19 Senior Thang.
A bid was approved to treat and repair the wood façade of the Burton Memorial Library.

Following new state legislation forbidding cities from enacting minor curfew ordinances, the city council repealed Clarendon’s minor curfew ordinance.

A resolution was approved to allow the city to receive money from the state’s opioid settlement fund.

In his administrator’s report, Dockery updated the council on the progress of downtown revitalization, the eastside paving project, and the aquatics center. Dockery particularly praised the managers and employees of the aquatics center for a great season and an exceptional job.

August is planning time for local governments as they begin the process of setting budgets and tax rates for the coming year with notice being given in the pages of The Clarendon Enterprise.

Clarendon College will hold a Public Budget Hearing on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. in Bairfield Activity Center and also a Public Hearing on Tax Increase the same day and place at 5:45 p.m.

Hedley CISD will have a Public Meeting to discuss its Budget and Proposed Tax Rate at 6:00 p.m., on Monday, August 21, 2023.
The City of Clarendon will have a Public Budget Hearing on Thursday, August 24, 2023, at 5:30 p.m.

Donley County will have a Public Hearing on its Proposed Budget and a Public Hearing on Tax Increase on Monday, August 28, 2023, at 9:00 a.m.

Clarendon CISD will also have a Public Meeting to discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 28, 2023.
Watch the Enterprise for more public notices about local government operations.

By William Melhado, The Texas Tribune

(Editor’s note: This story contains explicit language.)

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, threatened to beat up a state trooper and take down the Carson County sheriff in the next election after deputies detained the congressman at a rodeo outside of Amarillo in July, according to a sheriff’s incident report released last week.

The report said that Jackson screamed profanities at deputies who were trying to clear the area for emergency medical workers to attend to a teenager who was having a seizure. Deputies asked the former White House physician to step back four times before they put Jackson in handcuffs, according to their reports. (See video footage here.)

After the congressman was released, he demanded Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry call him and investigate the incident. During that call, Terry, a Republican, said that Jackson warned him that he would “bury me in the next election.”

The events described in the report starkly contrasted with the congressman’s public statement just days after the July 29 incident. A spokesperson for Jackson said at the time that he was detained amid a “very loud and chaotic environment” and was released as soon as law enforcement realized he was trying to help. Notably the statement said Jackson was sitting “in the stands during the entire rodeo, in full view of the assembled crowd, and was not drinking.”

But according to an account from Chief Deputy J.C. Blackburn, the GOP congressman was seen drinking backstage of the rodeo event. A Jackson aide disputed that in a statement Friday.

“Congressman Jackson was not drinking and was prevented from giving medical care in a potentially life-threatening situation due to overly aggressive and incompetent actions by the local authorities present at the time of the incident,” said Kate Lair, a spokesperson for Jackson. “Again, he was asked to help the teenager when no other uniformed medics were present. Congressman Jackson, as a trained ER physician, will not apologize for sparing no effort to help in a medical emergency, especially when the circumstances were chaotic and the local authorities refused to help the situation.”

The sheriff’s report, released to The Texas Tribune in response to a public information request, includes several accounts from deputies detailing what happened at the White Deer rodeo. After a teenager collapsed at the event, onlookers began to gather around her and EMS asked Department of Public Safety Trooper Young to clear the crowd, which included Jackson who said he was helping assist the patient. The report did not include the first name of many law enforcement officials present at the scene.

Young ordered Jackson to step back and moved him back. According to Deputy Alexander, Jackson pointed to Young and said, “I’m going to beat that mother fuckers’ ass!”

The congressman later told Terry that in his attempt to care for the patient, he thought it was safe to put a gumball in the patient’s mouth as a way to elevate her blood sugar. But in an exchange included in the report between Terry and White Deer EMS provider Kimberly Thomas, Thomas says that the gum presents a choking hazard to patients having a seizure, and that most gum is sugar free and thus would not address low blood sugar.

Due to Jackson’s extremely agitated state, in which he continued to yell profanities, deputies brought him to the ground and placed the congressman in handcuffs, according to the report. Officers then escorted Jackson out of the rodeo grounds and removed the handcuffs, while he continued to scream profanities at Trooper Young. After the congressman was released, his wife, Jane Jackson, approached the deputies and demanded their information before their group got into a Black SUV and left the scene.

Later that evening the Sheriff Terry received a text from dispatch that read, “Congressman Ronny Jackson wants a phone call tonight referencing something that happened at the rodeo.”

When Terry called Jackson at the provided number, the congressman said he was “fucking pissed” about the incident, and said the deputies had used bad judgment. He demanded an investigation and consequences for the deputies involved. After threatening to “bury” the sheriff in the next election, Jackson ended the call with the phrase, “Game on,” Terry wrote in the report.

Law enforcement officials have not yet released footage of the incident, but Terry’s report said that he has reviewed tapes and agreed that the deputies’ actions were justified.

Jackson was first elected in 2020 to represent the 13th Congressional District, a deeply conservative district in the Panhandle. He is one of Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress and a vocal booster of his 2024 comeback campaign.

He served as White House physician for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump before becoming a congressman. In 2018, he was nominated by Trump to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. But Jackson withdrew from consideration amid allegations of professional misconduct, including drinking on the job and overprescribing medication.

A 2021 investigative report by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Defense found that Jackson disparaged employees, engaged in “alcohol-related misconduct” and made sexual comments about a female employee under his supervision.

The report also found that Jackson took sleeping pills during official travel and cited witness testimony that he was drunk while on duty during a presidential trip to Argentina. But the inspector general was unable to corroborate those claims and noted that there was no policy against the use of Ambien during long overseas flights.

At the time, Jackson denied the allegations in the report and called it a “political hit job” that “purposely left out key facts.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/11/ronny-jackson-rodeo-altercation/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.