Former Burnet County Judge James Oakley filed a federal lawsuit this week against former District Attorney Wiley “Sonny” McAfee and current Sheriff Calvin Boyd, accusing them of malicious prosecution tied to a criminal case that dogged him for more than three years. Oakley, who was indicted in March 2023 and saw his final charges dismissed just months ago, is seeking at least $218,000 in defense costs along with additional damages.
Oakley filed the lawsuit Monday, according to KXAN, naming McAfee, Boyd and Burnet County as defendants. The suit claims the defendants violated Oakley's First and Fourth Amendment rights by pursuing charges designed to force him out of office. Oakley rose through Burnet County government over two decades, serving as a county commissioner beginning in 1999 before becoming county judge in 2015, the station reports.
Four Charges, One Jury Trial
Oakley was indicted on four counts in March 2023. Two misdemeanor charges accused him of abuse of official capacity tied to simultaneously serving as county judge and sitting on the board of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, including using a county vehicle to travel to cooperative business, per the outlet's reporting. The other two charges, alleging tampering with evidence and official oppression, stemmed from a minor 2021 vehicle collision.
A Blanco County jury acquitted Oakley on the abuse-of-official-capacity charge that went to trial in August 2023, and he was reinstated to his position as county judge afterward, the station's report notes. Oakley has described the charges against him as “trumped up.” He has said McAfee and Boyd moved against him after he pushed to investigate a whistleblower complaint alleging fraudulent timesheet entries at the Burnet County Sheriff's Office.
The Overtime Dispute That Preceded the Indictment
That whistleblower complaint fed into a broader fight over Sheriff's Office payroll that played out alongside the criminal case. The Burnet County Commissioners Court ordered a forensic audit of the Sheriff's Office in September 2023 after anonymous whistleblowers alleged employees were paid overtime for hours never worked, according to the Daily Trib. Oakley had pushed for the audit over what he called payroll irregularities, the paper reported in earlier coverage.
Accounting firm Baker Tilly was paid $20,000 to conduct the review, which flagged 957 instances of timesheet labeling involving overtime categories, the Daily Trib reported. Boyd and McAfee offered a different account of the same numbers, with one official saying he found no illegal conduct by the Sheriff's Office. Oakley's lawsuit alleges McAfee and Boyd investigated his professional and personal life in an effort to find a way to remove him, and that the timing of the charges was calculated to stop him from acting on overtime concerns and the outside audit before it was complete.
A Rejected Deal and Dismissed Charges
Three cases against Oakley remained pending in the court system after being appealed by McAfee's office when Oakley resigned as judge, officially leaving office in early January 2025. The Daily Trib reported those charges were first quashed by a visiting judge in July 2023, then revived through McAfee's appeal in November 2024, before the state ultimately moved to dismiss them all on May 20, 2026, in the interest of justice, according to the paper's coverage of the dismissal.
Before that dismissal, prosecutors offered Oakley a non-prosecution agreement that would have dismissed the charges and expunged his record if he agreed to stay out of Burnet County elected office for seven years, according to Oakley's lawsuit as reported by KXAN. The proposed deal would have also required Oakley to waive the statute of limitations, allowing the charges to be refiled if he broke the promise. Oakley refused the agreement.
A Separate Reprimand From the Bench
Oakley's resignation followed not only the criminal proceedings but also a public reprimand from the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct in December 2024, which the Daily Trib's report tied to courthouse security violations and sexual-harassment allegations. The commission's own disciplinary record lists a public reprimand for Oakley dated December 11, 2024, according to the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
McAfee, whose final term as district attorney ended December 31, 2024, told KXAN he first learned of the lawsuit from the station and said Oakley has no grounds for a malicious prosecution claim. Boyd did not respond to the outlet before publication, and KXAN reported it could not reach Oakley for comment.
What Oakley Is Asking For
Beyond the $218,000 in criminal-defense fees, Oakley's suit seeks additional damages for reputational harm, emotional distress, mental anguish, humiliation, lost income and lost professional opportunities. He is also pursuing punitive and exemplary damages, attorney's fees and a declaratory judgment, according to the filing described by KXAN. With McAfee disputing the lawsuit's basis and neither Boyd nor Burnet County having publicly responded, the case now moves into federal court with the underlying criminal matter already closed.
