Skip to main content

JOHNNY SOWELL EXPOSED - PART 1 - FAILED STATE TROOPER AND FRAUDLENT MAYOR




Readers will recall a post made back in October 2016 that detailed apparent misuse and commingling of funds by the 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland (and reported to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas).

The information we uncovered led to the U.S. Department of Justice investigating Hiland and his Drug Task Force head Johnny Sowell and later on to an investigation by the FBI agents assigned to public corruption cases.

That post resulted in a flood of emails to us to look into Sowell as he was illegally holding the office of Mayor for the City of Shirley and he was doing so other sketchy and possibly illegal things. Here are a few examples.
 


  
We did confirm that Sowell had illegally held the office of Mayor (he never has lived within the city limits of Shirley - more on that later on) and we did  little more digging and found some incredible and unbelievable information about Sowell's brief stint as an Arkansas State Trooper.

Sowell began his career in law enforcement with the Cleburne County Sheriff's Department in 1990 and bounced around several agencies until he wrangled his way into the Arkansas State Police in May of 1995.



Sowell didn't last long with the Arkansas State Police.  He has the distinction of being one of the worst recruits in that agencies history.


Read what his superiors had to say about him.



BY THE THIRD DAY OF TRAINING SOWELL WAS GETTING ATTENTION , IN A NEGATIVE WAY

SOWELL WAS SO OUT OF SHAPE HE COULD NOT EVEN DO A "FEMALE STYLE" PUSH UP



"SOWELL HAS A SORRY ATTITUDE"; "HE [SOWELL] JUST LOOKS AT YOU WHEN HE IS BEING CORRECTED AND GOES ABOUT HIS BUSINESS OF BEING LAZY, WHICH HE IS VERY GOOD AT"; "HE [SOWELL] IS AS UNFIT AS ANYONE I HAVE EVER SEEN"





It's a wonder that any law enforcement agency would have employed him, much less the National Guard.  Sowell spent two years in Kosovo with NATO peace keeping forces (August 2000 through July 2001).  Maybe that is where he learned some of his sketchy, criminal traits.
  
Sowell bounced between various agencies again until 2007 when he went to work for the 20th Judicial District on their Drug Task Force.

In 2010  Sowell ran for and was elected Mayor of Shirley. The problem with that was that he was not legally entitled to run for or hold that office.



Arkansas Code Annotated  § 14-42-201 states that candidates and office holders for Mayor must reside inside the city limits during the campaign and when in office.



Sowell did not live inside the city limits of Shirley when he ran for Mayor or when he illegally held that office.

To be continued in Part 2.

Popular posts from this blog

ASP Trooper texts and stalks a 14 year old that was near same age as his own daughter, while having an affair with her married sister.

Was ASP Trooper Billy Martin trying to pull all 3 sisters?   In January 2019, Callie Hinson and Joseph Ramer began dating. On June 13, 2020, Joseph proposed to Callie.  They were married on February 21, 2021. By the time of their first anniversary, their marriage was in shambles and Callie was estranged from her family all due to this man, Arkansas State Police Trooper Billy Mitchell Martin. Martin joined the ASP as a recruit in January of 2007. Records from his personnel file indicate he was from Boone County and he was posted there after graduating troop school.   Martin was promoted to Trooper First Class in July 2011 and Corporal in July 2014. In late 2019 and early 2020, Martin tried to get transferred to a Criminal Investigation position in Boone County but was unsuccessful. Around that same time, Martin filed for divorce from his wife of 10 years.   The Divorce was finalized in March 2020. Martin hit the single scene hard and had no trouble hooking up with bad...
Read more

Arkansas State Police Troopers fired for illicit sexual relationship

  Two Arkansas State Police Troopers were fired on April 5, 2024 after administrative investigations were conducted into accusations that they were romantically involved. Sgt. Mark Austin Blackerby (38 and married) of Scott and Trooper Jessica Diane McCord (30 and single) of Conway during their interviews with the State Police Office of Professional Standards ("OPS") in January 2024, were dishonest about the affair according to records provided to us by the ASP. Blackerby and his wife Cassie - a Jacksonville cop Initially, the investigation focused on Blackerby and both Blackerby and McCord denied a sexual relationship even though ASP vehicle tracking systems showed their vehicles parked at secluded locations for hours at at time and his vehicle at her home in Conway multiple times when he was on the clock. Blackerby admitted that he also disabled the tracking devices in his vehicle to try and hide his movements and their hookups.  Blackerby told investigators that he is a ...
Read more

Fired Dover City Marshal Nathan Jones Accused of Exploiting Dying Man to Take Control of His Estate

  A video of a part-time Dover, AR city marshal threatening a local business that went viral on social media, resulted in his termination of employment on October 1st.   Here's the video. Apparently Jones was the subject of rumors in the town. Rumors about meth pipes and the 479 Smoke Shop.   According to records obtained from the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards & Training ("CLEST"), Jones previously worked part-time for the Dover Marshal's Office from October 26, 2007 through January 2, 2009.   Jones was also elected in 2023 as the Martin Township Constable and held that position under he lost to Ricky "Perch" Parks in 2025.   Don't worry about Jones losing his part-time job. As his campaign literature detailed, he owns a couple of businesses in area. During our investigation of Jones for this story, we found that he had been accused of exploiting Daniel L. Koester, 64 years old, who had cancer and had been in hospice after sufferin...
Read more