Eric Johnson's relationship with city staffer at heart of his divorce

Mayor Eric Johnson’s wife of 16 years alleged in court Tuesday that she “caught him in our house” being unfaithful with a woman employed by the city of Dallas, in February 2021. The revelation came during the final day of divorce proceedings involving the mayor and his wife, Nakita Johnson, in the 303rd District Court at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building. Nakita testified that she confronted her husband that day in February, and he admitted to the affair. “He basically said that it had happened a dozen times or so and didn’t give much more than that,” she said. In testimony earlier in the day, the mayor had denied that he had had an affair. Ike Vanden Eykel, the mayor’s attorney, said Nakita had “no evidence whatsoever” of the affair. Beyond the anecdote, Nakita’s attorneys entered into evidence footage from the home’s Ring doorbell camera, which, she said, showed the woman arriving and leaving on February 5, 2021, “the last day she left our house and never came back.”

The image was not shown to the courtroom but was described for the record. When asked whether her husband had been “unfaithful,” Nakita answered “yes” and then spoke of catching the two. She did not detail what she saw. D Magazine is not naming the woman because she is not a public figure and did not appear in court to testify. Reached by phone, she said she “could not more strongly categorically deny” the allegations and said she was unaware that she was part of the couple’s divorce proceedings. Campaign finance reports show that Mayor Johnson paid about $110,000 to the woman’s firm during the 2023 campaign; he ran unopposed. Nakita’s attorneys, Jennifer Hargrave and Hannah Rector, presented the payments as evidence of the mayor’s personal and professional relationships with the woman. Most of the daylong trial focused on disentangling a 16-year marriage, which included intimate family matters that do not rise to level of the public interest: splitting property, spending habits, income, parenting decisions, communication. The case files are sealed to protect the Johnsons’ three children, but Judge LaDeitra Adkins denied a request from Vanden Eykel to close the courtroom to the public during the proceedings. Eric Johnson filed for divorce from his wife in March 2023. “He waited until he was unopposed to tell me he filed for divorce,” Nakita said. She testified that the mayor told her he had filed for divorce while she was cleaning dishes, following a family dinner, and had left the papers for her on a chair and said “it was done.”