KP George indicted by grand jury for using fake Facebook page – Houston Public Media

Andrew Schneider

Fort Bend County Judge KP George was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday for misrepresenting his identity by using a fake account on Facebook and “posing as Facebook user ‘Antonio Scalywag’”, according to court documents.

The document accuses George of using the account in campaign communication posted on his Facebook page to “injure a candidate or influence the result of an election.”

George was not immediately available for comment.

In a statement earlier this week, George said he was complying with the authorities after they seized his electronic devices.

“From the outset, I have been fully cooperating with the authorities. I’ve complied with them and provided the requested items,” he said in the statement. “On the advice of my attorney, I neither can comment nor answer any specific questions at this time.

“I will continue to perform my duties as the County Judge which citizens of Fort Bend County overwhelmingly elected me to do. My focus remains on serving the residents of Fort Bend County to the best of my ability. I have 100% faith in the legal process and trust that once all the facts are reviewed, my name will be cleared.”

George’s former Chief of Staff Taral Patel is currently facing charges for similar accusations, using fake pages to write racist comments under the candidates’ Facebook pages.

Patel is the Democratic nominee for Precinct 3 county commissioner. He’s running against Republican incumbent Andy Meyers, who has served on commissioners court since 1997.

Last year, Patel sent out a press release with a collage of racist and xenophobic comments he said he received on social media.

About a month later, Meyers asked the district attorney’s office to investigate the identities of the social media users included in his opponent’s press release.

Meyers said one of the social media users – “Antonio Scalywag” – had also attacked the commissioner before Patel entered the race. Meyers hired an investigator, who could not find anyone under that name living in Fort Bend County.

In June, Patel was arrested, after investigators said he had been posting on a fake Facebook account under the name “Antonio Scalywag.”

Prosecutors say Patel used the photo of a Needville man as the profile picture for Antonio Scalywag’s account.

Investigators also accuse Patel of using other aliases, as well as impersonating a judge and a former county employee.

A search warrant last week alleged that George may have been aware Patel was using fake accounts. After the search warrant was filed last week and George’s devices were seized, the judge said he was told he was a witness, rather than a suspect, in an investigation.

In text messages to the judge in 2022, Patel said he planned to use a fake account to counter criticism the judge had faced after signing a burn ban, according to the search warrant.

After the text exchange, the Facebook user “Antonio Scalywag” replied to several comments discussing the burn ban.

According to the search warrant, Patel also posted from George’s campaign Facebook account, sharing screenshots of racist social media comments the judge had received and condemning the remarks.

However, prosecutors believe at least some of those comments came from the “Antonio Scalywag” account and another alias used by Patel.

Patel is currently facing three misdemeanor counts of misrepresentation of identity, a misdemeanor charge of online impersonation and four felony counts of online impersonation.

So far, jail records do not indicate George has been arrested.

Meyers and his office have been highly critical of the judge. The commissioner called for George to resign and Patel to withdraw from the commissioners race if the allegations against them were true.

Meyers said in a statement that George has also had “a dedicated full-time Sheriff’s Deputy and a $70,000 chauffeured Tahoe SUV” after he claimed his life was threatened by alleged racist social media posts.

In an interview with Houston Public Media, Meyers’ spokesperson, Dennis Spellman, said fake allegations of racism harm the county.

“Promotion of this fake racism has harmed Fort Bend County’s reputation on a global scale,” he said. “At a time when Commissioner Meyers has developed a plan to build shovel-ready sites for industrial development, we’ve also had Taral Patel out there telling the world that we’re a racist county.”

In August, Precinct 4 County Commissioner Dexter McCoy called for Patel to suspend his campaign. However, Patel did not withdraw from the race in time for the party to replace him.

Even if Patel and George were convicted, they could still continue to hold office.

Craig Goodman is an associate professor of political science at the University of Houston Victoria.

Goodman drew parallels with another local scandal, where state representative Ron Reynolds continued to hold office, despite a conviction.

“State rules don’t really indicate that you cannot hold office if you’ve been convicted of a crime,” Goodman said in an interview. “So at that point, it would be up to the voters.”

Ariel Worthy contributed to this report.