A local Republican Party chair is claiming that the Hood County Sheriff’s Department is being weaponized against opponents of a local school district bond proposal after he was arrested and charged with a felony for using a school bus to campaign against the bond.
Granbury ISD recently proposed a $161 million bond that has raised concerns among the community, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Early voting for the special bond election ran from April 22 to April 30. Election Day is May 4.
Opponents of the bond organized a “No Bond Bus Tour,” led by Steve Biggers, the Hood County Republican Party chair.
Biggers shared with The Dallas Express that he had obtained the school bus from a “close friend” and driven it around town “to bring awareness throughout the community and information on the bond election.”
He was arrested on April 19 for allegedly “tampering with a government record,” with the Hood County Sheriff’s Office claiming he entered “false information into a government record to obtain a temporary registration [for the bus] from the Hood County Registration/Tax Assessor’s Office,” per a press release from the sheriff’s office.
Biggers told DX his arrest was “an attempt to silence the opposing side,” alleging there was “no justification at all” to his arrest and that the “[Hood County Sheriff’s Office] has been weaponized.”
According to the sheriff’s office, Biggers “provided additional false information indicating the gross vehicle weight of his vehicle was under 10,000 pounds, however, records showed it to have an empty weight of about 10,300 pounds,” CBS News Texas reported.
Biggers also claimed that he had been “targeted by the county judge on free speech violations, removed from the county commissioners court twice, by the sheriff, when trying to address issues.”
In April 2023, Biggers filed a federal lawsuit against Hood County Judge Ron Massingill. Biggers claimed his First Amendment rights to share his viewpoint and petition the government during public meetings at Hood County’s bi-weekly commissioners court had been violated, per Hood County News.
The case was “DISMISSED with prejudice,” according to an order by Mark T. Pitmman, a U.S. district judge, per HCN.
Biggers created a website to raise funds to help him with his legal issues.
“If law enforcement can do this to citizens and try to muzzle them for expressing opposing views, then our country and freedoms are finished,” his website reads.
Biggers was released from jail on a $1,000 bond.
“The case is still under investigation,” Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds told DX.
Following Biggers’ arrest, the bus tour resumed.
