Sherre Johnston (r) chiliing on an excursion to the Cayman Islands
Bosqueville – According to a public document that officials of the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office refused to release to RadioLegendary, a prominent boutique owner had been given a criminal trespassing warning months ago, a document warning her to stay away from Sheriff Parnell McNamara’s home place.
His brother Mike McNamara is buried there and Mrs. Sherre Johnston had visited his grave a number of times, causing complaints by his widow and family. In an exclusive interview at the time, she said she was upset because McNamara was a close friend.
“Why shouldn’t I be allowed to visit the grave of a close friend?” she asked.
She found him suffering a fatal heart attack in the parking lot of an area restaurant, she said, and called an ambulance. “I was just driving by.”
On Sunday, May 5, she reportedly returned to the home place of the McNamara brothers’ father, U.S. Deputy Marshal in Charge of the Waco Division of the Western District of Texas, where the family has lived since antebellum days. While there, people observed her going into a shed on the property, according to reports of an affidavit of probable cause in support of a search warrant for her home that was witheld from RadioLegendary.
Once there, law men say they found an item they allege she took from the shed on the McNamara property and left in another location on the property. This led to charges of criminal trespassing and burglary of a building with intent to commit theft.
In recent years, she has experienced a number of encounters with the law, including multiple charges of DWI and a case of assault in a domestic dispute with her daughter’s boyfriend.
Mrs. Johnston is no stranger to legal controversy. For a number of years she served as an assistant in the law office of Vic Feazell, former District Attorney, and had a place on the slate of associates listed on the Private Investigator’s license of Truman Simons, a former Waco police detective and Captain of the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office who developed the cases used to convict David Wayne Spence and the brothers Gilbert and Tony Melendez in a brutal1982 triple slaying of three young persons who were residents of the Methodist Home at Waco.
Her husband, John Johnston, is an Assistant Chief of the Waco Fire Department who until only recently served as Chief of the department until he took a voluntary demotion in order to be protected by civil service regulations.
During his tenure, he recommended a psychiatric evaluation that the Civil Service Commission ordered for the department’s lead arrson investigator, Kevin Fisk. After Fisk established his mental fitness to continue his duties as an arson investigator, he returned to work, then resigned in order to retain what retirement benefits he had accumulated during 15 years of service at the Fire Department.
In this taped conversation with Fire Marshal Kevin Vranich, Fisk explains what he had learned about the dismissal of the assault case against Mrs. Johnston and the status her daughter’s legal situation.