<\/p>\n
The law enforcement officer spent months methodically gathering evidence. He leafed through thousands of pages and highlighted key passages amid reams and reams of paper. He wore his body camera to record his interactions with witnesses and suspects. And he photographed what he saw as instruments of the alleged crime:<\/p>\n
Books.<\/p>\n
The targets of the investigation? Three school librarians in Granbury, Texas. The allegation? They had allowed children to access literature \u2014 such as \u201cThe Bluest Eye,\u201d by Toni Morrison \u2014 that the officer, Scott London, a chief deputy constable, had deemed obscene.<\/p>\n
In an extraordinary look into the ramifications of the right-wing backlash against books dealing with racism, gender, sex and sexuality, an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth shows how, for two years, London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in the Granbury Independent School District.<\/p>\n
London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who\u2019d checked out certain books and, after a year,\u00a0wrote draft criminal complaints<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those charges \u2014 distributing harmful material to a minor \u2014 were never filed. The investigation came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London\u2019s request to indict the librarians, citing a lack of conclusive evidence to charge them with felonies.<\/p>\n Sinclair declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions. London, who has ties to the anti-government\u00a0constitutional sheriff\u2019s movement<\/a>\u00a0and tried to launch a local chapter of the\u00a0far-right Oath Keepers militia<\/a>\u00a0in 2020, did not respond to questions.<\/p>\n