Special prosecutors will retry the campaign sign theft case against retired Gen. John Furlow

Published 6:38 pm Tuesday, January 26, 2016

1. Charges dropped against John Furlow in sign-stealing case

Special prosecutors will retry John Furlow, a retired general and 2014 county judge candidate, for stealing his opponent’s campaign signs after the first criminal trial ended with a hung jury.

Furlow was said to have directed the theft of campaign signs valued at more than $1,500 but less than $20,000, making it a state jail felony charge. State jail felony offenses are generally low-level property or drug crimes and are punishable by confinement in a state jail facility for 180 days to two years and a fine of no more than $10,000.

Visiting Judge Jerry Calhoun declared a mistrial in a theft case Dec. 2 after five of 12 jurors indicated further deliberation would not lead to a unanimous decision.

The theft’s occurred a day before the March 4, 2014 Republican Primary in which Furlow faced incumbent County Judge Joel Baker.

After the mistrial, special prosecutor Anthony Lyons said he believed the state proved Furlow participated in the theft by directing and encouraging a man to steal 22 of Baker’s campaign signs valued at $1,640.

Lyons did not return calls for comment before print time Tuesday, but at the time of the mistrial, he said cost would be a factor when deciding to retry the case.

District Attorney Matt Bingham said Lyons is an experienced defense attorney and prosecutor and that he was brought in to present it to a Smith County grand jury, because he has no ties here.

Bingham said the grand jury saw enough evidence to prosecute and that Lyons has pursued it accordingly. The decision to retry the case was Lyons’.

During the trial, Furlow’s attorney, Scott Ellis, said the case was a form or retaliation pushed initially by Baker against his client following a nasty political race for county judge.

Ellis reiterated his opinion Monday.

“It’s costing taxpayers tens-of-thousands of dollars to prosecute, and my client is having to spend thousands of dollars to defend himself from a frivolous lawsuit,” he said. “It’s a travesty to have to do that again.”

Ellis said he expects the same outcome for his client to be vindicated.

Prosecutors believed text message threads taken from the man’s cellphone implicated Furlow.

The jurors did not identify points of contention within the evidence presented to them, but it was clear they were weighing whether Furlow told the man to steal the signs and whether the value of the signs met the felony level.

Baker had initially valued the signs at $769, based on invoices, according to his personal e-mails with a Tyler Police detective. Baker later changed the valuation to $1,640, which took the charge from a misdemeanor to a state jail felony. Baker said the later quote came from the sign company on what it would cost to replace the 22 signs. The cost of individual signs decreases as the number ordered increases.

Prosecutors said the text messages between Furlow and the man who took the signs, which included a photograph of the signs taken, to which Furlow answered, “Looks good,” proved he directed the man and had knowledge of the thefts.

Furlow testified he didn’t open the photo attachment until November when the man contacted him about police investigating the theft. He said the text messages were taken out of context and that he had directed the man to watch out for people taking Furlow campaign signs after several had gone missing in the same area.

No trial date has been set for the retrial.