Victoria Boldon thought she was going to die in her jail cell when she gave birth last year.
Boldon, 27, said she sat surrounded in her own blood after being in in labor for nearly three hours on Sept. 3. Jail and medical staff refused to take her to the hospital during that time until her water broke, she said.
“It was just embarrassing having to sit there with people, seeing me naked, seeing me bleeding, seeing me crying, seeing me just go through all that weird stuff that you don't want somebody else to see,” Boldon said in an interview at her home.
The in-custody birth came amid allegations of medical neglect from detainees. And the person in charge of the jail — Johnson County Sheriff Adam King — faces criminal charges over an ongoing sexual harassment scandal.
Now, months of controversies have put a focus on a jail that state records show has been in and out of compliance for years.
Krish Gundu, co-founder of the Texas Jail Project said in an interview with KERA News she’s received several complaints about Johnson County Jail over the years.
The nonprofit jail advocacy group receives and files complaints about facilities across the state to the jail commission.
“We always get complaints about the different ways in which people get treated in the jail,” Gundu said. “We’ve been getting a lot of complaints about withholding medical care, denial of medical care, using that as a punitive measure.”
Sheriff King did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.
'It feels like a bad dream'
Court documents shared with KERA News show the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the birth of Boldon’s baby Sept. 3 in a document signed by a registered nurse at the jail.
Boldon’s baby came out in two pushes, and he was born on the floor of her jail cell. Boldon said she suffered from hemorrhage bleeding from previous pregnancies.
Boldon and her baby were eventually taken to the hospital that night, where Boldon had to get a blood transfusion. But because the baby was born at the jail, Boldon said the hospital could not give her a birth certificate and she would have to obtain one through the county’s courthouse.
As of February, the only detailed information Boldon has about her baby’s birth that night was documented by other inmates who witnessed it.
“I’m trying to deal with it the only way I know how to or cope with it, which is just bearing it, and not really thinking about it,” Boldon said. “So that's just been my issue lately, is just that it doesn't feel real. It feels like a bad dream.”
Boldon isn’t the only woman to give birth in the jail in recent years.
In 2018, a woman gave birth in her cell after allegedly hiding her labor pains in a holding tank with other inmates, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The baby died at the jail due to complications caused by chorioamnionitis, an infection in the placenta, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
At the time, the sheriff said he believed the woman hid her labor pains because she had a drug problem, according to the Star-Telegram.
The woman reportedly admitted to being pregnant when she was booked but did not alert deputies to her labor pains until the very last moment, according to the outlet.
Repeated jail non-compliance
Before the birth of Boldon's baby, the Johnson County Jail was on the state's radar for other reasons.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, acting on a complaint, issued a notice of non-compliance to the Johnson County Jail on Aug. 4 after a finding staff did not conduct 30-minute check-ins on an inmate on suicide watch who was considered a “high risk.”
In an email to KERA News, Lt. Keven George did not identify the officer but said the person has since been demoted and suspended without pay.
"[T]he Johnson County Jail is aware of the findings and takes all matters of compliance with the TCJS very seriously," the spokesperson said.
The jail received a suicide prevention plan, outlining required observation procedures and disciplinary framework for non-compliance. A copy of the plan provided to KERA shows it went into effect Aug. 29.
Minimum jail standards require facilities to perform documented, face-to-face observations of all inmates every hour and conduct observations for high-risk individuals every half-hour. That includes inmates, "known to be assaultive, potentially suicidal, mentally ill, or who have demonstrated bizarre behavior."
Texas jail standards also require one jailer for every 48 inmates. Gundu, with the Texas Jail Project, said that ratio may not be adequate for growing jail populations, as understaffing and insufficient check-ins are recurring complaints.
"We need that ratio to be a lot better if we want people who are most vulnerable — that is people with serious mental illness in our jails — to be safe," Gundu said. "That one-to-48 ratio is pretty appalling because we're expecting jailers to do mental health."
Once the commission has verified a jail is in compliance, it's removed from the list. Johnson County Jail was taken off the list last year and was not listed as of this week.
Johnson County Jail has faced non-compliance notices four times in the past five years, including an in-custody death review in 2021 that found that seven jailers working on the date of the death did not have a jailer’s license.
Sheriff Adam King indicted, arrested
Local sheriff offices operate most jails in Texas. Over the last decade, that responsibility in Johnson County has fallen on the office of Adam King.
King is a prominent figure in the community. The sheriff was first elected by voters in 2016 and most recently in 2024, serving in his third term. Before that, he served as commander for the South Texas Officers and Prosecutors Human Trafficking Task Force. He’s also been involved in several churches across Johnson County.
Now King faces scrutiny — and criminal charges — over another scandal.
Texas Rangers arrested King on Aug. 27 after accusations he sexually harassed multiple female employees between February 2024 and July 2025, according to records shared with KERA News.
King, 58, was indicted that same day by a Johnson County grand jury on two counts of retaliation against a witness and one count of abuse of office related to sexual harassment, according to court records.
Prosecutors allege King made several sexual comments and, “created an environment of unwanted sexual attention by leering and staring at female subordinates,” court documents say.
County officials were made aware of the allegations around June 30 and the Texas Rangers then opened an investigation, Johnson County Judge Christopher Boedeker wrote in a statement at the time.
“We trust the criminal justice system to find the truth and to deliver justice” Boedeker said. “No person is above the law, but every person is entitled to his day in court.”
The indictment also accused King of violating the Texas Whistleblower Act by retaliating against two employees who filed complaints about the harassment, including county training coordinator Anna Goodloe and Chief Deputy James Salter, according to the records.
Court documents allege the former sheriff threatened to arrest Goodloe after she filed a complaint against him to human resources and tried to get her home address, "knowing the fact would cause a reasonable person to feel harassed, terrified, intimidated, alarmed or tormented."
The Johnson County’s Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post King voluntarily stepped down from his position the day after his arrest and was on paid administrative leave. Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records show King’s license was suspended Sep. 9.
He was indicted again Oct. 1 on an aggravated perjury charge. King was accused of lying to a grand jury about changing Goodloe’s work schedule after she reported him to human resources.
That charge was dropped in December. King's attorney Bill Mason previously told KERA News the October indictment was unlawful because it was made by the same grand jury that heard the allegedly false testimony, in violation of the Texas Constitution.
King was indicted a second time on aggravated perjury March 25. Jail records show he was arrested the next day, and released on bond.
"As you know, the previous case was dismissed as being an illegal and unlawful indictment," King wrote in a statement the day of the arrest. "This is more of the same and is all laughable, petty, and unprofessional."
King was allowed to return to his position a few days after his October arrest, with restrictions.
He was allowed to resume duties three days out of the week between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. while being shadowed on duty, according to WFAA. He is not allowed to perform background checks on sheriff’s office employees and is prohibited from contacting his accusers, the station reported.
It’s unclear if King is still working under these restrictions amid his latest arrest.
But Johnson County District Attorney Timothy Good has questioned King's status, arguing King cannot serve in his position so long as his license is suspended.
Good sent a request for an opinion to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in October, which Paxton denied because formal opinions typically aren't issued in pending litigation.
King’s seen an outpouring of support from some members of the community. Dozens of Johnson County residents gathered at the Cleburne Convention just a few days after King’s initial arrest looking for ways to raise money for his legal expenses.
Vance Castles hosted the rally and said during the event the two are close friends.
“I am outraged and unable to be silent any longer,” Castles said. “I am speaking out and I’m doing it without his permission because this is just wrong.”
An abortion investigation
Prior to his arrest, King faced controversy for using a surveillance network to track down a North Texas woman he suspected had an abortion, first reported by news outlet 404 Media in May.
On May 9, King searched Flock cameras, with the reason “had an abortion, search for female” cited, according to 404 Media. Flock cameras are used to scan the plates, color and model of any vehicle driving by. The network then builds a detailed database of vehicles, and by extension, peoples' movements.
King’s months-long search for the woman spread across 6,809 different Flock networks, with a total of 83,345 cameras, 404 Media reported.
The case began after a Burleson man reported he found fetal remains at or nearby his home, according to a partial report obtained by The Dallas Morning News. Johnson County officers went to the man’s residence, where they found the fetal remains as well as “a large amount of blood,” according to the partial report.
Officers believed the man’s girlfriend had an abortion, but she was not at the residence.
King told 404 Media in a phone call he was worried about the woman’s safety due to her alleged self-administered abortion, “and her family was worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital.”
King and his attorney have not responded to requests for comment about the abortion incident and whether he is still allowed to work with restrictions amid his latest arrest.
Alleged mistreatment, medical neglect
Some of the issues inside the jail have come to light in the wake of the high-profile Prairieland Detention Center shooting.
Eighteen of the defendants in that case were briefly detained in Johnson County, and were among the first to share stories of alleged neglect in county custody.
Meagan Morris, a transgender woman arrested in July, told KERA News last year she was denied hormone replacement therapy medication the first month in custody. Jail staff gave her the medication for a short period of time, Morris said, but cut the dosage in half and refused to give her prescribed anti-inflammatory medication for her arthritis.
Morris claimed jailers told her they need proof her medications were prescribed by a doctor. Records shared with KERA News show a doctor faxed her medical records to the jail July 9, days after her arrest.
Still, Morris said she was denied her prescriptions. She’s since been moved to a Fort Worth federal prison.
Other jail detainees told KERA News they saw a 60-year-old female detainee pepper sprayed multiple times on separate days after allegedly refusing to get undressed and handcuffed as part of her cell check.
An incident report obtained by KERA News states officers used force because the woman was “creating a disturbance” and “refusing or failing to obey orders.” The report doesn’t specify what force was used.
In an email to KERA News, Johnson County Lt. Keven George said chemical agents were used on the woman in three separate incidents after she allegedly refused to comply with orders from jailers to be handcuffed and exit her cell.
“Such measures are not undertaken lightly,” George said. “The use of force is always considered a last resort after all reasonable efforts to achieve voluntary compliance have been exhausted.”
According to policies from the sheriff’s office, pepper spray can be used when “control holds have failed or been ineffective, or verbal commands have failed to bring about the subject’s compliance.”
Meanwhile, Boldon — who gave birth in the jail — was back behind bars before she was moved to a different facility in October. She was released for a week after giving birth but was required to return due to a previous bond violation.
Before she was transferred, Boldon raised concerns again to KERA News during an in-person visit in October, claiming the jail was still neglecting her health as she experienced postpartum symptoms.
“I’m just ready to be with my baby again,” Boldon said. “I’m just tired of not being treated like a human.”
Penelope Rivera is KERA's Tarrant County Accountability Reporter. Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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