The Texas Rangers will not be looking into allegations Mayor Javier Joven abused his power when he texted Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke about a possible burglary suspect last December.
“The Rangers have indicated they will not be investigating. No further action will be taken by this office,” Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan said in an email Friday.
Joven could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last December, Odessa resident Matt Coday contacted the Odessa American because an unknown person texted Gerke asking for someone to investigate a man for “walking around in and out of houses” in the neighborhood of then Ector County Republican Chairwoman Tisha Crow and supplied the chief with his license plate number. Coday says he was in Andrews at the time.
Coday, who routinely posts negative and inflammatory things on Facebook about Crow, Joven and Odessa City Councilwoman Denise Swanner, wanted OPD to pursue false reporting charges against the texter, but the city refused to divulge the name of the texter.
The Odessa American filed a Texas Public Information Act request seeking the texter’s name and the City of Odessa sought permission from the Texas Attorney General’s Office to keep the name a secret, falsely claiming the texter was a “confidential informant.”
On March 21, the AG ordered the city to release the name of the texter and it turned out to be Joven, a political ally of Crow and Swanner.
At the behest of Coday’s attorney, Bobby Bland, Gallivan had already asked the Texas Rangers in February to look into the allegation someone at City Hall had abused their power by falsely reporting Coday was burglarizing homes and they were abusing their power by hiding that person’s name.
According to records obtained last week by the Odessa American, Major Robert Matthews of the Texas Rangers had reached a conclusion within a week of receiving Gallivan’s email.
He asked Lt. Randy Lewis to visit with Gallivan, writing: “I am not sure how this is sufficiently criminal or significant for us to devote resources.”
Lewis said he’d meet with Gallivan and wrote: “I agree there is nothing criminal.”
On Friday night, Bland said several discussions were held after those emails, but declined to comment further.
In recent weeks, Coday has filed another complaint, this one with the Texas Department of Insurance against Crow about actions she took a year before he was accused of being a burglar.
In November 2022, Crow, Swanner and Medical Center Hospital Board Member Wallace Dunn filed a report with the police department accusing Coday of harassing them at council meetings and on social media.
According to the OPD report filed by the trio with the OPD, Crow said she saw a Ford F-250 in front of her residence on Nov. 15, 2022, and when she ran the license plate using her insurance company computer, it came back to Coday. Crow and her husband Kris own a Farmer’s Insurance branch.
In his complaint to the state, Coday wrote: “This is an egregious abuse of power and abuse of the public trust by an insurance agency and insurance agent licensed with our great State of Texas,” the complaint reads. “I am stunned that The Crow Insurance Agency and Tisha Howell Crow personally engaged in this criminal activity to target me.”
Coday wants the agency to investigate Crow and revoke any licenses she and her agency holds to conduct business. He also wants them to notify Farmer’s Insurance and all other insurance companies represented by the agency “of this egregious and criminal behavior.”
Crow via email said “the stalking and harassment finally reached a place where all three of us felt we needed to go to the police. After collectively meeting with an OPD Detective and Chief Gerke, they recommended we file complaints but talked about how they would remain as internal complaints until any of us felt we needed to make them public.”
Crow also complained that the OA “would continue to give a platform to a convicted felon, thief, self admitted addict, alcoholic and racist to aid him in furthering his campaign of terror and harassment against another Odessa citizen.”
Swanner has previously taken to social media to question if Coday is “off the wagon.” Coday has for years detailed publicly he is a recovering alcoholic.
Crow said Coday has stalked at “least three elected officials, but he has made online sexually charged and misogynistic comments about my person. This complaint he has made against me is moot; just as were the others he has already made with other businesses and organizations. “
She said Coday’s recent complaint is to cause her harm after “we had filed complaints with an OPD detective.” She also she welcomes the opportunity to allow people to read of what she called his gross misconduct.
Coday has never been charged with a crime in any of these matters and one OPD police reports ends with: “Once again, these posts are on a public forum. Nothing criminal. Narrative complete.”
