In addition to blogging on Hive, I perform some amateur local journalism, covering politics and governance in my home county in North Carolina. Local newspapers have all but died out across the United States, and we are often have more sources of information about national events, than things happening right in our cities and towns.
One of our County School Board members, Ronald Johnson is currently on trial for extortion and a list of other charges. Somewhere around 2019 he initiated an affair with a local school teacher, then allegedly directed the school teacher to attempt to seduce Devan Barbour, a candidate for U.S. Congress. The teacher eventually made a recording when Devan Barbour allegedly drunk dialed her and propositioned her for sex. Ronald Johnson then allegedly played a portion of the recording for the Congressional candidate, in again allegedly an attempt to extort him.
Approximately two years our Board of Education initiated an investigation against Ronald Johnson for alleged misconduct, and that investigation expanded and lead to Johnson being indicted by a Grand Jury for felony extortion. The trial started last week. Today another School Board Member, Kevin Donovan was called by the State to testify against Johnson. During the initial investigation, Donovan was scheduled to be questioned by the County's investigator (Hoffman), and Johnson demanded for Donovan to secretly record the interview. Some time later Johnson and Donovan had a falling out, when Donovan learned that Johnson had been lying about the affair with the teacher and other matters.
This case is convoluted and sordid, but we are almost to the punch line!
Ronald Johnson's defense attorney attempted to paint Kevin Donovan as a sophisticated computer hacker. The defense attorney asked Kevin Donovan if he used virtual private networks (VPNs), and if he could use a VPN to create a fake telephone number. Donovan replied he would have no idea where to even begin creating a fake phone number. When the Prosecuting Attorney brought the topic back up with Donovan, she asked "Don't normal people use VPNs to secure their data?" Donovan responded - "I use the VPN to play Pokemon Go." We live in a rural area - and the choice locations for Pokemon Go are not in our County, Donovan essentially testified that he was a gamer-geek. I had to bite my lip in the courtroom to avoid from laughing out loud!
When I explained what Donovan had said in the Courtroom my 70-something mother immediately understood, as she spent time playing Pokemon Go with her grandchildren (my nieces and nephews).
It definitely created a surreal moment in the courtroom and the Defense Attorney quickly abandoned that line of questioning. I'll be back in the courtroom to report on the trial, but I don't expect any more "Pokemon Go" moments. It was so ludicrous that I felt compelled to share it here!
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