WINDCREST, Texas – In early September, Windcrest Councilman Greg Turner stood before the city’s ethics commission and said he did not have a personal or professional relationship with Corey Jones, the owner of a nearby boarding facility that had recently housed the city’s stray cats and dogs for nearly a year.
Turner, while at times being grilled by commission members, eventually conceded that he had taken his son’s French bulldogs a handful of times to be groomed at Jones’ Texas Canine Boarding & Pet Services, in the 6000 block of Montgomery Drive.
“I have no personal relationships. No family members have any relationships with them. It’s just a turnkey operation from my perspective,” Turner said.
Just days after Turner’s appearance before the commission, Jones received final payments from the city of over $62,000 for providing boarding services, Windcrest invoice records show.
In all, Jones was paid $195,886.82 from late August 2023 to mid-July of last year to care for the animals, records show.
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During an appearance before the ethics commission for a separate hearing the following month, an animated Jones also downplayed having any sort of relationship with Turner.
“This whole Greg Turner thing. I met Greg Turner two times in my life,” Jones told the commission.
But records obtained by KSAT Investigates challenge the accuracy of both men’s statements.
Handwriting analysis: Turner’s handwriting appeared on ethics complaints filed by Jones
Last August, Jones filed sworn ethics complaints against two Windcrest residents he accused of damaging his business and blocking his operation from landing a formal contract to care for the city’s strays.
“The next day after I met them two, I got a complaint about dogs being doubled up in a cage and they’re walking around urine and feces,” an exasperated Jones told the commission, referring to residents Pamela Dodson and Rainbeau Presti.
He said the women, both of whom are animal advocates, had gone into his facility and used what they saw to smear his business.
Dodson denied the accusations during her appearance before the ethics commission.
“That is an inaccurate characterization of the chain of events. I have never blasted his business. I have never made comments on social media regarding his facility at all,” said Presti during a recent interview with KSAT.
While reviewing the ethics complaints, Presti said something stood out to her: Jones’ handwriting on the first page had changed in the supporting evidence section at the end.
Presti said the handwriting at the end of the complaint looked strikingly similar to Turner’s, whose penmanship Presti recognized from her previous council campaign against him last fall.
Presti then took the unusual step of paying a handwriting analyst to compare the ethics complaints with forms previously filled out by Turner.
The 30-page analysis, which utilized writing from Turner’s ballot application and campaign expenditure forms, determined that Turner’s handwriting appeared on the sworn ethics complaints filed by Jones.
“A city councilperson and the owner of another facility appear to be working in concert to file this complaint. That is odd,” Presti said.
Turner said Jones somehow got access to attachments prepared by Turner
Jones was not at the facility when KSAT Investigates stopped by seeking comment for this story.
An employee eventually answered the door and put Jones on speaker phone.
Asked by KSAT why Turner’s handwriting appeared on his sworn complaints, Jones repeatedly said it was an issue between the city of Windcrest and its residents.
Turner did not respond to multiple email requests from KSAT asking for an interview for this story.
KSAT showed up at a recent Windcrest City Council meeting in an effort to speak with Turner, but he was notably absent.
Presti told KSAT that Turner approached her about the handwriting controversy at an early voting site in late October.
Turner contends Jones had somehow gotten ahold of attachments bearing Turner’s handwriting that the councilman put together and given to other city leaders, according to audio of the encounter recorded by Presti.
“Should he (Jones) have asked me? Yeah. I would have felt better with that,” Turner said on the recording.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
