Odessa’s mayor has falsely accused a private citizen of a crime and used your tax dollars to lie to the Texas Attorney General’s office to hide from the public the identity of the person who texted Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke to have the cops investigate the man.
The text came from Mayor Javier Joven, who asked Gerke to send cops to investigate someone near Bainbridge Drive in the Country Club area “walking around in and out of houses” in December of 2023.
Odessa’s mayor also told Gerke the man was driving a Ford F-250 pickup truck and provided him with a license plate number that belonged to Odessan Matt Coday, who is a political enemy of the mayor, Councilwoman Denise Swanner and current GOP County Chair Tisha Crow.
Crow and her husband live in the area where the alleged suspicious activity was occurring. Turns out, Coday was not even in Odessa at the time of the alleged incident.
Late last month, Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan asked the Texas Rangers to look into allegations that someone falsely reported Republican agitator Coday was burglarizing homes and that people at City Hall were abusing their power by hiding that person’s name.
We agree a criminal and abuse of power investigation by an outside agency must be done, and we call on Joven and City Attorney Dan Jones to resign.
When folks started demanding to know who sent in that phony text message to falsely tie Coday to some kind of crime, Joven hid behind Jones and hung Gerke out to dry. Joven never stepped up to take the pressure off of Gerke. To further stonewall the public’s right to know, Jones argued to the Texas AG that the identity of the mystery texter should be withheld because the person was a “confidential informant.” Later, Jones argued the name should be withheld because it was tied to a stalking case.
Knowing what we know now, it would appear both arguments are based on a lie and therefore also lies.
We’ve filed a Texas Public Information Act (FOIA) asking for stalking and other complaints filed by the Crows, the Swanners, Joven and Councilman Mark Matta against Coday.
How’s this for irony? Jones is fighting to keep those records secret under the pretense that he’s protecting Coday!
That’s right, in his letter seeking permission to hide the documents, Jones wrote a letter to the AG claiming, in part, that our request amounts to a “borderline” request for Coday’s “criminal history” and OPD is not permitted to release a complete criminal history report on an individual.
Surely, if Coday were a stalker and a criminal, Joven & Co. would want that out there. So why fight the release of those documents?
Now, we know the mayor and his spin machines at the City of Odessa public relations office and the fake news sites Odessa Headlines and Odessa’s Accountability Project will come up with some ridiculous lie to cover for the mayor and the Crows.
But documents obtained Tuesday by the Odessa American reveal the truth, which is that Joven was the person who texted Gerke.
On Tuesday, the OA received copies of the text messages the paper already obtained earlier last month about the events of that December morning. We initially received the copies after filing an FOIA request, but the name of the mystery text messager was redacted by the City. But this time, two pages contain the following words at the bottom:
“Exhibit B – Highlighted portion redacted and released to requester. Confidential Informant (Mayor of the City of Odessa) called in suspicious vehicle in neighborhood.”
Coday’s attorney, former Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland, said he has forwarded the documents to Gallivan asking him to send them to the Texas Rangers.
“I find it extremely troubling and more than ever this needs to be investigated for criminal activity,” Bland said. “The fact that the city is using its resources to protect the mayor and describe him as a confidential informant is shocking. During the 15 years I was DA when I saw ‘confidential informant’ that meant somebody that was turning state’s evidence, usually because they had information on a stash house. In this case, we’ve got the mayor calling or texting the chief of police and giving what my client says is false information trying to frame my client.”
Gallivan said he has not yet heard whether the Texas Rangers will investigate Coday’s allegations, but he confirmed he will forward documents he received from Bland to the agency.
Using taxpayer-funded resources to harass a citizen just because he has called you out on social media is shocking.
We can’t think of another incident that rivals this type of abuse of office by an elected official in Odessa.
To hammer the point home yet again…the mayor texted Gerke, HIS SUBORDINATE, to take care of a matter and that matter was NOT a crime. Don’t believe us? Even the police report said a crime had not occurred. Coday was actually in Andrews visiting his parents when Joven claimed to Gerke he was prowling around the Country Club neighborhood in Odessa.
This is all part of a troubling pattern with current GOP leaders in Ector County led by Crow. During this election (if you didn’t vote early, don’t miss your chance on Tuesday) the Joven/Crow/Swanner faction has sought to paint anyone who disagrees with their despicable management of the local GOP as a Democrat or “Trans Republican,” whatever that means.
This group has been fought by Odessan Ronnie Lewis and others to bring civility and honesty back at the local GOP headquarters. Donna Kelm, who is running against Crow, recently filed a police report alleging she actually had her hair yanked out in a confrontation at the Ector County Annex by Carmen Wilhite, who is running against Lewis. Wilhite has also filed a similar report alleging assault by Kelm.
Lewis and Kelm are seeking, along with others, to throw out those who have used local power to intimidate Odessans and who have now fallen to this new low of actually sending the cops out after a political critic.
Luckily on the day of the alleged suspicious activity, officers were unable to find Coday in the area or at his apartment but contacted him by phone. Coday recorded all the conversations he had with various OPD staff about why they wanted to speak with him.
The conversations are shocking, with officers clearly knowing someone important had asked the police chief to send them out. Coday repeatedly sought to find out who asked the police to find him and refused to tell officers if he was in the area until he was told who called the police on him. He was informed they could not.
“Since there was no crime that had been committed, Cpl. (Taylor) Miley and Sgt. (Jon) Foust were instructed to just do information narratives on the incident,” OPD Capt. Darryl Smith wrote in his report.
Coday later contacted the Odessa American, upset OPD did not investigate the texter for false reporting.
Who could have known the mayor would abuse his office and then abuse the time of the cops and then abuse Coday with this phony allegation.
But that is what happens to the critics of Joven & Co. Councilwoman Swanner has posted on social media questioning if Coday is “off the wagon” and all of the Joven/Crow/Swanner group have tried to paint him as some kind of a nut. Coday has detailed publicly he has been a recovering alcoholic for years.
All because Coday is well-known for calling them out on lies. He regularly hazes Swanner for once posting she had lunch with Josiah Vargas, a fake Facebook profile used to bully Odessans.
We’ve repeatedly called the mayor out on a number of lies he has told since taking office. That is bad enough, but the fact that he is now involved in an official cover up means he has to go. And Jones should hit the road, as well, for his collusion in this mess.
We don’t tell folks how to vote. But, just in case this troubling abuse of power is something that bothers you, remember that Joven is running to be local GOP Precinct 204 chair against incumbent Richard Pierce. Remember, Donna Kelm is seeking to unseat Crow as the local GOP party chair. And, Swanner is running against Brenda Worthen for another precinct chair seat.
And, in case you need to know, here are the candidates that are NOT part of the Joven/Crow gang of political thugs:
Donna Kelm, Don Stringer, Carlos Chavez, Linda Hall, Gary Don McCain, Dallas Kennedy, Jason Pond, Jill Miller, Traci Gregston, Ronnie Lewis, Richard Pierce, Charles Pierce, Brenda Worthen, Jet Brown, Christi Bryson, Gary Johnson, Randy Elam, Billy Dubose, Luis Galvan.
