Rev. Ryon Price’s yearlong ban from the Tarrant County Commissioners Court only lasted about a month and a half, after the Sheriff’s Office approved his appeal, Price said Tuesday.
Price, the senior pastor of Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church, got a trespass warning at the July 2 Commissioners Court meeting, after he spoke eight seconds over his allotted public comment time.
County Judge Tim O’Hare gave Price two warnings that his three minutes had run out before ordering sheriff’s deputies to escort Price out of the room. Deputies advised him not to come back to the county administration building in downtown Fort Worth for a year, Price told KERA.
But Price was back in the courtroom Tuesday, where he once again took the podium during public comment.
"I'm here lawfully, because on Friday, I received notice that my appeal of my one-year ban from this court has been approved,” Price said. “I appreciate the respectful letter of notice Sheriff Waybourn sent to me, and I do apologize to the court for exceeding my time allotment."
Baptist preachers like Price “have a penchant for being long-winded,” but that’s not why he spoke over his time, he said.
Price is a member of a local activist group pushing for better county jail conditions. On July 2, he spoke following the family of Anthony Johnson Jr., a man who died of asphyxiation after jailers pepper sprayed him and knelt on his back. Two now-former jailers have been charged with murder in the case.
Price was “deeply affected” by the Johnson family’s comments, he said.
“I felt and still feel that what happened to him in the Tarrant County Jail could and should have been averted, had what we citizens have been saying over these past two years been heeded,” he said.
After KERA wrote about Price’s ban and other people thrown out of the courtroom in recent months — some who got banned, some who did not — O’Hare clarified meeting rules.
If anyone speaks over their three minutes, they’ll be warned once and escorted out of the meeting if they continue, he explained on July 16.
Whether someone gets a trespass warning is up to sheriff’s deputies and decided on a case-by-case basis, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Robbie Hoy.
Former state representative Lon Burnam was also banned from Commissioners Court on July 2, after he confronted O’Hare about his treatment of a fellow commissioner, he previously told KERA.
Burnam also appealed his ban but has not heard anything back yet, he said Tuesday via text message.
O’Hare has started reading the court’s rules for decorum at the beginning of each Commissioners Court meeting, but he said Tuesday would be the last time.
“I want to commend our public speakers the last two meetings, for making public comments more civil, and for your cooperation,” he told the audience.
Commissioners will look at a new courtroom decorum policy in the coming months, O’Hare added.
There was a tense moment later in Tuesday’s meeting, when one of Anthony Johnson Jr.’s sisters, Janell Johnson, took the podium. She has become a frequent speaker since her brother’s death in custody. O’Hare instructed deputies to remove her from a meeting in June after she confronted him directly.
As Janell spoke Tuesday, calling for accountability for her brother’s death, her volume rose. She slapped a small notebook on the podium’s surface and said, “Do something, now.”
“Miss Johnson, please lower your voice,” O’Hare said.
O’Hare warned her to lower her voice a second time, and Janell walked away from the podium.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on X @MirandaRSuarez.
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