Today at 3:15 p.m. Lamar County Precinct 1 Constable Travis Rhodes and Texas Ranger Stacy McNeal served the Mayor of Deport, TX with a warrant for his arrest. The warrant came after the Grand Jury met yesterday reviewing an investigation on Mayor John Mark Francis which returned an indictment.

“The arrest is for the charge of theft of $2500 and less than $30,000 of a public servant. Francis surrendered and was booked into the Lamar County Jail,” stated Rhodes.

eParisExtra reached out to former Deport City Council member, Tommy Borders about the investigation and he stated “the investigation has been going on for about 6 weeks.” “He was ordering supplies from Staples and having them delivered to his home and the city was picking up the tab which is just not right. When we questioned him about it, he didn’t think he had done anything wrong,” said Borders.

Our staff also reached out to Mayor Francis for a comment, however at the time of this posting we did not make contact with him. We will continue to follow this story and also give Mayor Francis or his attorney an opportunity to speak to the charges.

Francis bonded out quickly on a $7500 bond.