An Odessa man who claims he’s been falsely accused of stalking and burglary by political foes, including former Ector County Republican Chair Tisha Crow, has filed a complaint against her with the Texas Department of Insurance.
According to Matt Coday’s complaint, Crow admitted to police she used her insurance firm’s computer system to look up his license plate while filing a “false” report on him with the Odessa Police Department in November 2022.
“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.”
According to Odessa Police Department reports obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act, Crow, City councilwoman Denise Swanner and Medical Center Hospital Board Member Wallace Dunn complained to OPD officers in November 2022 they were being harassed by Coday at council meetings and on social media.
Crow responded via email Tuesday writing Coday was obsessed with her, Swanner and Dunn and wrote his obsession began “about the time that his board members began reporting irregularities with his nonprofit.”
According to the 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.
“Crow stated that she knew that Coday was simply trying to scare her, to which it did not,” the report stated.
The officer advised the trio that Coday was likely posting on social media to gain notoriety and they should ignore him.
“I then asked what they needed me to do, to which Dunn, Crow and Swanner advised they simply wanted to make sure it was documented and nothing else,” the officer noted in the report.
The officer also recommended recording Coday if they saw him near them or following them.
Slightly more than a year later, Coday contacted the Odessa American because an unknown person texted OPD Chief Mike Gerke asking for someone to investigate a man for “walking around in and out of houses” in Tisha Crow’s neighborhood and supplied the chief with his license plate number when Coday says he was in Andrews at the time.
Coday 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 Mayor Javier Joven, a political ally of Crow and Swanner.
At the behest of Coday’s attorney, Bobby Bland, Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan has asked the Texas Rangers to look into the allegation Joven abused his power by falsely reporting Coday was burglarizing homes and that people at City Hall were abusing their power by hiding that person’s name.
As of Monday, Gallivan had not yet heard back from the Rangers.
Crow on Tuesday 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.”
Another report by OPD Capt. Darryl Smith detailed “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.”
Smith’s report came after Joven texted Chief Gerke.
Coday has said he was targeted by Crow, Joven and Swanner for being politically outspoken.
Joven has not addressed Coday’s allegations he was specifically targeted by Joven and others for being outspoken on local politics. Crow lost her seat as GOP chair in the March primary to Odessan Donna Kelm. Swanner lost her bid for a precinct chair seat to Brenda Worthen in the same primary. Swanner is up for re-election to city council in November. Joven has indicated publicly he will also seek re-election.
