Fort Worth activist EJ Carrion was arrested early Wednesday, one week after he and dozens of other residents assailed Tarrant County commissioners over a proposal to cut the number of voting sites. Pictured, Carrion was removed from a commission meeting in February for criticizing Judge Tim O’Hare.
ChristineVo/Fort Worth Report
A Fort Worth activist was arrested one week after he and dozens of other residents assailed Tarrant County commissioners over a proposal to cut the number of voting sites.
EJ Carrion, host of the 817 Podcast about Fort Worth, is accused of disrupting a public meeting. Records show he was booked into the Tarrant County jail early Wednesday morning on a $600 bond and released late afternoon.
Last week, commissioners were debating a contentious proposal to reduce the number of Election Day voting sites nearly in half this November, from 316 to 176. They ultimately tabled the proposal to Sept. 1 after hours of heated public testimony.
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Many in attendance accused Republicans of attempting to disenfranchise Democratic voters. At one point, County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Republican, cleared the courtroom after some in the crowd giggled when a speaker compared Texas to Russia.
While speaking, Carrion directed an expletive at the Republican commissioners, then turned to walk out of the chamber.
“Remove him immediately from the room,” O’Hare told deputies.
“I’m walking out, you small man,” Carrion replied.
Related: Tarrant County judge orders courtroom cleared, removes former state lawmaker
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Deputies arrest Carrion after an hours-long Fort Worth City Council meeting, in which the city adopted a 90-day moratorium on the approval of data centers.
Lesa Pamplin, Carrion’s attorney, said O’Hare is seeking to squash any dissent. The judge has removed speakers in the past for laughing and clapping. Carrion was removed from a meeting in February after he called the judge “small.”
“This is fascism and authoritarianism,” Pamplin told The Dallas Morning News by phone Wednesday afternoon. “The scary part is ‘Could we be next?'”
Leah Nesbitt, a spokeswoman for O’Hare, told The News this is a law enforcement matter and directed all questions to the sheriff’s office.
County Judge Tim O’Hare at the Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting on Feb. 10, 2026 in Fort Worth.
Maria Crane /Fort Worth Report
Carrion was not the only one arrested on allegations of disrupting the public. O’Hare also ordered the arrest of 73-year-old Lon Burnam, a former state lawmaker, who picked up the microphone while speaking to support a previous speaker, Base Mego, who was removed for picking up his own microphone. Mego said he has autism and trouble with public speaking and was previously granted an accommodation to hold the microphone.
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Burnam then lay on the ground, and deputies carried him out of the courtroom by his hands and feet.
“I’ve been an activist my entire adult life, and so I knew exactly what I was doing,” Burnam said. “I thought ‘I’m not going to put up with this,’ so I just sat down on the floor with that mic and made them take it from me.”
In a statement, the sheriff’s office said the mens’ conduct met the threshold for criminal charges for disrupting a meeting, a state misdemeanor punishable with up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
“Both individuals will have the opportunity to present their cases and contest the charges through the judicial process,” the sheriff’s office said.
Burnam said he is considering suing O’Hare over the arrest.
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Related: Former Texas lawmaker says he was prepared for his removal from Tarrant County meeting
On Wednesday, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells filed two charges against Burnam: disrupting a meeting and hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. In a statement, the district attorney said Burnam “chose chaos.”
“When behavior violates the law, there are consequences, Sorrells said in a statement. “That is what this case is about.”
Tiffany Burks, Burnam’s attorney, said the First Amendment protects the rights of citizens to petition their government and challenge elected officials. Burks is running for Tarrant County district attorney this fall against Sorrells.
“The County Judge had the authority to manage the meeting. No one disputes that,” she said. “But authority is not a blank check. Rules of decorum are meant to keep public meetings open and orderly, not silence the public’s First Amendment rights.”
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O’Hare and Republican commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez have said they wanted to reduce the number of polling places to save money. Critics, including Democratic commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles, have accused Republicans of trying to make it more difficult to vote, particularly for low-income and Black and brown voters.
Tarrant County has more than 1.3 million registered voters.
The Republicans said at the meeting they did not approve of the dramatic reduction in the number of voting sites.
On his 817 Podcast this week, Carrion addressed the meeting and his removal from the courtroom. The meeting, he said, was a “pivotal moment that set a new balance of power in Tarrant County.”
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Related: What to know about Tarrant County’s proposal to cut polling locations for November election