Former Clay County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyde is in jail
A former Clay County sheriff began serving a jail sentence Monday for official oppression and tampering with a government document.
Jeffrey Clark Lyde is serving a 30-day sentence in the Hardeman County Jail in Quanah for misdemeanor convictions in Clay County that resulted in his ouster from elected office.
"He's been booked in, fingerprinted, and he's in Hardeman County custody," Hardeman County Sheriff Pat Laughery said early Monday afternoon.
Lyde, 56, turned himself in to the jail around 10:30 a.m. Monday, Laughery said.
He wasn't sure if Lyde was being held in a solitary cell or with another inmate. The jail staff performs certain duties connected to Lyde's stay in jail, such as determining his classification as an inmate.
Laughery said a judge and 46th District Attorney Staley Heatly forwarded the commitment for Lyde to the Sheriff's Office.
Heatly prosecuted Staley's criminal cases as an attorney pro tem with sole discretion over them.
Defense attorney Bob Estrada, lead counsel for Lyde's criminal cases, has said his client would receive no special treatment or protection in jail because he is a former sheriff. Lyde is serving his time in Hardeman County because closer counties had a disgruntled former employee on staff or actual witness in the trial.
The 11-bed jail in Quanah is about an hour and a half northwest of Henrietta.
The sentencing agreement
As part of a punishment agreement, Lyde was sentenced to serve 30 days on Oct. 10 at the Montague County Courthouse by Senior Justice Lee Gabriel, who formerly served on the Second District Court of Appeals.
Gabriel also ordered Lyde to pay a $750 fine for each of the two counts he was convicted of and to begin serving his sentence Monday, Nov. 27.
The class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Lyde voluntarily surrendered his license from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and waived his right to appeal as part of the sentencing deal. In return, his remaining criminal cases were to be dismissed. They are all misdemeanors, and he had pleaded not guilty to them.
Lyde's abuse of power as sheriff
On Sept. 15 at the Montague County Courthouse, a jury found Lyde guilty of official oppression and tampering with a governmental document in connection with July 12, 2021, incidents.
Lyde kept Landon Paul Goad in Clay County Jail illegally — not releasing him after a judge found no probable cause to hold him. In addition, the former sheriff tampered with court documents connected to a domestic violence charge against the Clay County man.
Lyde faced the same charges involving the confinement of Goad's girlfriend in jail at the same time, but he was not tried on them. Goad and Sarah Lynn Johnson are suing the county and Lyde in federal court for alleged violations of their civil rights.
Texas law dictates that a county sheriff is immediately booted from office if he is convicted by a jury of any misdemeanor or felony involving official misconduct.
Elected Nov. 3, 2020, and sworn in Nov. 30 that year, Lyde was a controversial sheriff who was in office nearly three years. He was temporarily suspended without pay in February after a hearing.
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Former Clay County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyde begins serving jail sentence
