Residents of Godley — a small city 30 miles south of Fort Worth — have dealt with small-town scandal for years.
But probably nothing could prepare them for 2026.
Last month a Johnson County grand jury indicted the former Godley police chief, his mother, two former officers and a local couple as part of a prostitution conspiracy investigation that has expanded to include sexual assault and bribery charges.
Arrest warrants obtained by KERA also show investigators allege the former chief ousted his predecessor by having two officers file false complaints. He then collaborated with those same officers to arrest a city council member to influence a vote on agenda items, investigators said.
Investigators also claim in an arrest warrant affidavit that the former chief collaborated with a local couple who solicited prostitution — and that he would find men for his wife on an app. The chief was accused of working with the couple to compile information on people they perceived as enemies.
The warrant states that Cantrell's wife confirmed he had "found her a 'boyfriend'" who was "solicited by defendant to have sexual intercourse" for $200.
In his indictment, Cantrell also was accused of committing sexual assault while he was a Godley police officer, but had not yet become police chief.
What started with a city shutdown and a potential political scandal has now turned into a sprawling investigation that's only expanded throughout this year — putting this city of about 5,000 people in the spotlight.
City turmoil
In 2022, Godley was in disarray.
So many staff resigned from the city — including the city attorney, city secretary, city administrator and chief of police — that City Hall had to shut its doors for weeks in January of that year.
The reasons for the staffing shortage remain unclear, although one former city council member has hinted at wrongdoing in city government.
Jennifer Thompson told WFAA at the time the staffers resigned after she started "asking questions" behind the scenes.
She alleged in a federal lawsuit that a relative of the city administrator was gifted a retired Godley fire truck — rather than it being auctioned off. Thompson also claimed the relative was unfairly hired to service the city's police cars, according to that lawsuit.
Even more friction would come after the resignation of Police Chief Jason Jordan following complaints from two police officers — Jeremy Arbuthnot and Solomon Omotoya.
Jordan was replaced by Matthew Cantrell.
Thompson and two other council members opposed Jordan's resignation. At a February meeting, she planned to make a motion to remove Cantrell, court records say.
But just minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin, she was arrested by Godley police officers for allegedly tampering with government records.
All charges against Thompson were later dropped due to lack of evidence. But because of her absence, two agenda items went to a mayoral tiebreaker: the hiring of an interim city attorney and the hiring of an interim city secretary.
Both items passed — clearing the way for Mayor Acy McGehee to "secure his preferred appointees for City Attorney and City Secretary," a recent ruling from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stated.
With Thompson gone, no motion was made to remove Cantrell in that meeting.
Prosecutors and investigators say three members of Godley law enforcement had a hand in orchestrating those events behind the scenes,
Investigators say Cantrell worked with officers Omotoya and Arbuthnot to file false complaints against Jordan to get him fired, according to an arrest affidavit.
Investigators also said the three intentionally misled a judge to secure the warrant against Thompson and influence the council's vote.
It's those allegations that led Thompson to sue McGehee, Cantrell, Arbuthnot, the city and the officer who arrested her in federal court. Thompson's case will continue after the Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court's decision to toss out her claims and remanded the case last month for a new trial.
The Johnson County District Attorney's Office has not brought any charges against McGehee, who resigned in 2023 after a vote of no confidence.
KERA reached out to the defense attorneys listed on Cantrell and Arbuthnot's case and called their homes multiple times over the last month. They did not return requests for comment.
Calls to Omotoya's home were not returned. Johnson County Jail records do not list an attorney for Omotoya.
McGehee did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, in August 2024, the council voted to accept Cantrell's resignation. He and Omotoya were then convicted in 2025 for misusing the Godley Police Department's fuel card. They were accused of using it to pay for gas in their personal vehicles.
Cantrell pleaded guilty and received five years probation and supervised release. Omotoya pleaded not guilty and was released from jail on a $6,000 bond, according to court records. His case is ongoing.
'Ashley lost her ever-loving mind'
It was October 2023, and Kayla Lain — a Godley ISD school board trustee — was livestreaming to Facebook outside a school district bond committee meeting. She was protesting what she characterized as a closed-door meeting that she believed should be open to the public.
That drew the ire of Ashley Ketcherside, who had moved to the city a year before. Ketcherside was inside as a member of the bond committee and grew angry with Lain and the other parents complaining about the committee on Facebook.
Ketcherside and Lain have both described the ensuing years-long Facebook battle as a "cat fight."
"That's kind of when Ashley lost her ever-loving mind," Lain told KERA.
Amid the Facebook fight, Lain said she and a parents group called Families Engaged for Effective Education did a background check on Ketcherside and discovered she had two prior prostitution convictions in Tarrant County — confirmed by KERA News — and operated under the online alias "Lola Brea."
Concerns about Ketcherside's sex work and reported escort services raised more alarms because of her work in another capacity: She sat on the School Health Advisory Council, a state-mandated district-appointed council that advises the school's sex education curriculum, among other things.
That same month, another member of Families Engaged for Effective Education emailed Chief Cantrell with concerns about Ketcherside's involvement with the school, according to emails shared by Lain.
The school district did eventually remove Ketcherside from all volunteer and committee positions.
"The individual referenced served briefly as a parent volunteer a few years ago and was removed from that role after the district became aware of prior arrests," a spokesperson for Godley ISD told KERA. "The district is not involved and has not received any official details, although we will fully cooperate should the district attorney's office ask."
KERA attempted to reach Ketcherside by phone and messaged her in jail. Lawyers for Ketcherside did not respond to KERA's requests for comment.
But by that point, Ketcherside appeared to have already begun communicating with Godley's then-police chief. Cantrell texted her in October 2023 to share information on what was happening behind the scenes in city government, according to messages shown in his arrest warrant.
Ketcherside took her feud with Lain a step further in January 2024, when she and her husband Michael sued Lain and seven other people for defamation.
Among the defendants was then-city council member Michael Papenfuss. Text messages obtained by investigators show Cantrell passed along information about Papenfuss and his wife. In one text, Cantrell told her Papenfuss was served the civil suit and wanted the city to represent him.
In the suit, Ashley alleged the defendants defamed her by saying she was a child groomer and prostitute.
"Nobody wanted to drag her past, her family, her kids through the mud," Greg Cooper, another defendant in the suit, told KERA. "But at the same time, it became very clear that she had a questionable background."
Omotoya, one of the Godley police officers arrested, told investigators in an interview that Cantrell instructed him to pull computerized criminal histories, or CCHs, on people involved in the lawsuit, according to an arrest warrant.
The Ketchersides' suit was ultimately dismissed in May 2024.
OnlyFans and a podcast
After her history was revealed, Ashley Ketcherside at some point began posting content online under the name of "Lola Brea." She had previously posted online using that name. Some of those posts also included references to her real identity.
"I thought I left the dark side years and years ago and by recent popular demand here I am!" her bio on OnlyFans, a popular subscription platform for adult content, reads. "Such a blessing such a curse. I am here to set the record straight so if you want the real truth follow me."
Her attacks on Lain continued into 2026 with the launch of her podcast in March, titled "Champagne & Pearls: Grace Under Pressure, Truth Without Apology."
In one episode, Ketcherside filmed a skit of herself dressed up as Jesus Christ denying Lain from going to Heaven. The podcast ran for 13 episodes.
The last episode, now deleted, was recorded shortly after Ketcherside's home was raided by Johnson County sheriff's deputies and the Texas Department of Public Safety on March 31. The episode shows footage of officers pulling up to the home and telling Ketcherside her electronics will be seized and searched.
She said in the video her family was being targeted.
"The goal was to silence me," Ketcherside said. "And I don't want them to win."
That search of the Ketchersides' home came just a week after Lain, who said she was frustrated by what she saw as inaction on the part of Godley police, met with a Johnson County detective on March 24 to share information that alleged Ashley was still selling sex.
Cantrell and Omotoya — at the time out of jail following their fuel card scandal — were again arrested after detectives said they found evidence implicating the two former officers in a prostitution conspiracy on the Ketchersides' devices.
About that time, Cantrell's mother — Regina Cantrell, a former Johnson County corrections officer — was accused of looking for active arrest warrants on her son and charged with misuse of official information.
Attorney information for Regina Cantrell was not available as of Friday. Calls to her home in recent weeks went unanswered.
Investigators said the devices also contained evidence the Ketchersides were working with Cantrell to compile information on adversaries. The district attorney's office said the information is thought to have been collected on "members of the Godley City Council, Godley Independent School Board, the former mayor of Godley, and former Chief of Police of the City of Godley."
Lain said she didn't know of Cantrell's alleged involvement.
"I was pretty disgusted that police officers would do something like that," Lain said. "And also it shed light on why I was ignored."
Cooper, the defamation defendant, said he was shocked by the alleged police involvement.
"I mean everyone just knew that she was still engaged in that world, so to speak," he said. "But I don't think anybody really understood the depth."
The Ketchersides were both charged with racketeering. Michael Ketcherside was also charged with continuous promotion of prostitution.
Prosecutors allege he scheduled men to have sex with his wife for money.
A court-appointed attorney for Michael Ketcherside said he maintains his innocence.
More dominoes fall
Cantrell was originally only arrested and charged for promotion of prostitution in April. Additional charges were added in mid-July : two counts of sexual assault, stalking and engaging in organized criminal activity.
The indictment in July alleges Cantrell sexually assaulted a woman twice while he was a Godley police officer. He also was accused of telling the same woman he showed explicit photos of her to members of the Valley Mills Police Department while he was the chief of police for that department between 2024 and 2025.
The two other former Godley police officers, Arbuthnot and Omotoya, were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. That activity allegedly included bribery, tampering with a government record, coercing a public servant, retaliation and theft related to the 2022 arrest of Thompson and false complaints against the former police chief.
Omotoya was additionally charged with agreeing to have sex with Ashley in exchange for doing yard work or babysitting her children, according to an arrest warrant.
Questions still remain about how exactly Cantrell, Omotoya and the Ketchersides came to know each other.
More charges may still be coming, Johnson County District Attorney Timothy Good said in a press release.
"We hold our law enforcement professionals to a higher standard in this community, and we are continuing to investigate this case as additional information is disclosed to investigators," Good said.
Meanwhile, the eye-catching allegations and increased focus on Godley have rocked the city and its residents.
"It's hard to believe that our own police department's being corrupted," said Ronald English, who's been a Godley resident for over 20 years. "When police break a law, there is no law."
Cooper, who was sued for defamation, now lives in Joshua.
He said Godley residents have been taken advantage of.
"Godley's a wonderful, wonderful community and they're very trusting," Cooper said. "They believe in the best in people and the humbleness and humility that small town rural Texas communities have. And they were taken advantage of and it's sad."
Dylan Duke is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan at dduke@kera.org.
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