Fort Bend County Judge KP George Fights Fake Social Media Indictment

Fort Bend County Judge KP George is attempting to clear his name after being indicted for allegedly creating fake social media accounts that appeared to be racist attacks on himself and his former chief of staff.

According to Chad Dick, senior attorney with Rusty Hardin & Associates, LLP, the motion to quash and dismiss the indictment was filed in Fort Bend County court on Friday.

Per court documents, George’s attorney contends that the Texas Ethics Commission, which handles alleged election code violations, had not initiated an inquiry into the matter nor exhausted ways to resolve the accusations before the case was indicted.

The filing states that George had no preliminary or formal hearing with the commission, and the agency supposedly never referred the matter for criminal prosecution, which George’s legal team says is routine in such cases.

Since George was first indicted, investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety said they found evidence suggesting the county judge may have attempted to delete information from his phone while officers were serving the search warrant.

Investigators said they detected 15 unsuccessful password attempts when opening George’s phone. George had an Android cellphone. These devices automatically factory reset after 20 failed password attempts.

On behalf of his client, Dick denied these accusations were factual and said he would allow things to play out within the pending litigation.

A little over a week ago, George was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of misrepresenting his identity with the intent to influence an election. He is accused of posing as a Facebook user named Antonio Scalywag during his reelection bid against challenger Trever Nehls.

George also allegedly assisted Taral Patel, the Democratic nominee for Fort Bend County Precinct 3 commissioner and George’s former chief of staff, in his efforts to create fake racist Facebook accounts to try to sway Patel’s election.

Patel has since been charged with four felony counts of online impersonation to influence the result of an election.

After George was arrested last week and booked into the Fort Bend County Jail, he released a statement saying that he was “disappointed by the charges” and despite the calls to resign from fellow local leaders, he had “no intention” of stepping down from his position.

George was first elected as the Fort Bend county judge in 2018, defeating Nehls with 51 percent of the vote. He is the first person of color to serve in the position.