DA dismisses assault charge against Houston deputy mayor

HOUSTON — A misdemeanor assault charge that had been filed against Deputy Mayor Jim Johansen over a verbal altercation following a Houston City Council meeting last month has been dismissed.

“All this was just an attempt to smear my name,” Johansen said Friday moments after getting call from his lawyer that the Palmer District Attorney's Office decided not to pursue the case. “The whole thing was ridiculous from the beginning.”

The fourth-degree assault charge for “causing fear of injury” filed against Johansen by then-Houston Police Capt. Charley McAnally in mid-March were the result of a heated public argument between Johansen and Houston Planning Commissioner Ralph Buzard during and after a March 10 council meeting.

McAnally, who was fired by the council this week for reasons that weren't made public, claimed in his March 24 affidavit of the incident that he witnessed Johansen walk toward Buzard in an angry manner and that if he had not stepped between the two, he believed Johansen might have made physical contact with Buzard.

At the end of the report, McAnally described Buzard as “visibly shaken and upset” and “an elderly man 74 years of age.” He then requested a warrant be issued for Johansen's arrest.

Johansen said Friday that to insinuate Buzard is a feeble senior citizen is laughable.

“Ralph Buzard has never once backed down from anything or been afraid of anybody,” Johansen said. “And to claim I made any threats to harm him that night, or ever, are ludicrous. I am not a violent person and my record is clean except for one speeding ticket six years ago.”

In his report, McAnally said Buzard came to the Houston Police Department March 15 and told the captain he wanted to file charges against Johansen for the March 10 altercation.

“I gave Ralph Buzard a citizen complain form, which he filled out,” McAnally's report states. “I then reviewed Alaska Statute under assault in the fourth degree to see if the element of a crime of assault existed. After determining that the Alaska Statute supported a criminal charge, I interviewed Ralph Buzard. I, Captain C. McAnally, was present when the crime was committed; however, did not realize Ralph Buzard was placed in fear so at the time did not realize a crime had been committed.”

Johansen said the fact that the captain didn't believe a crime had been committed the night of the incident proves that the whole thing was later blown out of proportion in an effort to tarnish his record.

“There was an entire room of people who gave statements on my behalf later,” Johansen said, admitting he had exchanged angry words with Buzard after Buzard had made accusatory statements about him during the public meeting. “Mr. Buzard came right up to me and got in my face and told me he didn't like what I had to say.”

Johansen said after seeing comments former mayor Roger Purcell made on his Facebook page later that night that claimed Johansen had assaulted a 75-year-old man, he called McAnally the next day to ask him if he had, indeed, witnessed an assault.

“McAnally said no, there wasn't an assault,” Johansen said. “I asked him if anyone filed a report of an assault and he said no and seemed confused by my questions. Mr. Buzard went into McAnally's office five days later to file a complaint and 11 days later McAnally called me to tell me he'd filed a report against me. He asked for my side of the story and I told him he had been there so he should know my side.”

Johansen said he believes McAnally's report was suspicious because he filed it the day after the March 23 council meeting where it was determined Johansen would be doing the captain's job performance evaluation.

Johansen also said Friday he believes efforts by Buzard and Councilwoman Ruth Blanchard to recall Mayor Virgie Thompson are bogus.

He said he believes they and Councilman Lance Wilson set Thompson up when Wilson requested in February Thompson's time sheets from last fall.

“No other mayor has ever had to do time sheets and he suddenly makes her come up with time sheets that she had to recreate from memory,” Johansen said. “So the chances of her making an error on the time sheets was high. And considering who asked for them, it's my opinion it was a set-up.”

Buzard, Blanchard, Wilson and 64 residents who signed the petition for recall based the request solely on the fact that Thompson claimed she was working as mayor during a week she was out of state for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The group has claimed Thompson also falsified her time sheets by stating she worked a few hours on Saturdays when they have never seen her vehicle at city hall on weekends.

Wilson said Friday that previous mayors have, indeed, kept time sheets and that it's actually mandated by city code.

According to Houston Municipal Code 2.04.050: “The Mayor will be required to provide to the Council a monthly report showing proof of hours worked on request.”

The code states the mayor can receive up to $1,500 per month by working at least 100 hours per month. It also states the mayor must be “present.”

Thompson has claimed in the past that she does some of her work for the city while on breaks at school and in the evenings at home.

Thompson said recently she puts in a lot more hours as mayor than most people realize and that she bought new chairs for the Council out of her first paycheck.

Wilson denied Friday that he was trying to set up the mayor for the recall effort.

“By February, without the mayor acting as the chief administrator of the city, providing necessary leadership and management on a constant daily basis, numerous financial and managerial problems had began to emerge and grow out of control,” Wilson says in an email to the Frontiersman. “People began to question how much time the mayor was really devoting to city business.”

On the city's website, it states that beginning May 3, the mayor will be available every Tuesday night from 5 to 7 p.m. and every third Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. for residents to drop by city hall to ask questions.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.