It should have been a routine Commissioners Court meeting, but on Thursday in Fort Bend County, all hell broke loose.
Daniel Wong held a press conference moments before the 1 p.m. meeting was set to start, but handpicked which media outlets were invited. The Houston Press didn’t make the guest list but caught the closing comments. At the gathering, Wong said through a spokesman that he fully intended to preside over the meeting even though two commissioners and the county attorney publicly advised this week that his appointment as interim county judge had expired and he has no legal authority to serve.
Commissioners Dexter McCoy and Grady Prestage walked out of the meeting when it became clear that Wong wasn’t willing to step aside and get a court order proving his attorney’s contention that his appointment remains in place. The audience applauded the commissioners’ departure and one spectator shouted, “Shame!” at Wong. McCoy and Prestage later said they are considering legal action against Wong.
McCoy and Prestage maintain that Wong’s temporary appointment ended on June 17 when a civil matter involving former County Judge KP George was disposed of. County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson issued an opinion on Wednesday, saying that Wong no longer possesses the legal authority to act as county judge.
“Mr. Wong cannot legally participate in Commissioners Court meetings or hold himself out as the current judge unless he secures and presents a new, active court order. To date, no such order has been delivered to the County,” the opinion states.
Smith-Lawson said Thursday that she understands Wong’s ambition to remain in the role, “but the same respect that we gave to the appointment order, we must also give to the dismissal order.” Furthermore, Wong isn’t subject to the state’s “holdover” provision because he was not elected but rather appointed for a specific temporary time frame pending the outcome of a civil case.
Wong, however, who has not responded to requests for comment from the Press, issued a statement on Wednesday saying he is still the judge. His spokesman told ABC 13 that Smith-Lawson’s assessment was “meritless and partisan.” The TV station reported that Wong has hired attorney Chris Hilton, who previously represented Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and appeared by Wong’s side at Thursday’s press conference. The Fort Bend County Republican Party has said it fully supports Wong.
Legal analyst Chris Tritico said on Fox 26 earlier this week that it’s inaccurate to presume that Wong’s appointment is void because a civil case has been dropped. “They just took the lawsuit off the books because it’s no longer necessary,” he said.
The musical chairs at Fort Bend County Commissioners Court began while Republican District Judge Jeth Jones was presiding over George’s civil matter in April. He removed George from office and appointed Wong. George subsequently was convicted of felony money laundering, and the civil suit was dropped the day after he was sentenced to six months in jail. George is appealing his conviction but remains suspended from resuming his role as county judge.
Tritico suggested that the controversy of whether Wong’s appointment is void was initiated by Commissioner McCoy, the Democratic nominee for county judge who will face Wong in November for the full four-year term.
McCoy and Prestage have said they’re simply abiding by the county attorney’s legal advice. Before Thursday’s meeting even got to the invocation, Prestage stopped it to read a statement.
“Every minute that Mr. Wong claims to still hold a temporary position here is contrary and in violation of Texas law,” Prestage said. “Furthermore, every action taken by the commissioners court with the participation of Daniel Wong can and will be called into question, including but not limited to contract agreements, settlements, statutory actions, grants, personnel matters and financial transactions. These matters are too important for this commissioners court to get it wrong.”
McCoy then suggested that Wong “take a knee, be a statesman,” and sit out the meeting until he could produce a court order that addresses the legal concerns.
“This is a very frustrating, heartbreaking situation,” McCoy said. “I’ll say, in all fairness to Mr. Wong, this is not your doing. We have a former member of this body who threw us into this situation with the legal situation that he put us in.”
That said, McCoy suggested that the four commissioners could handle Thursday’s meeting in Wong’s absence. “If you feel you have a legitimate claim, there is nothing that prevents you from returning at a subsequent meeting, but if holding this office and putting the people’s work at jeopardy is more important, that’s a challenge and that’s a problem,” he said. “We should not open ourselves up to a future where, because we are awarding contracts in today’s meeting, a contractor who did not win a contract now has a legitimate claim to void the action of this court.”
It’s been standard practice at Fort Bend County that when a judge is absent, the longest-serving commissioner acts as presiding officer and runs the meetings. Prestage, who has been elected eight times since 1990, has previously held that role while George was dealing with legal issues.
McCoy and Prestage are Democrats; Commissioners Andy Meyers and Vincent Morales are Republicans. So when Wong was appointed, that gave the court a 3-2 GOP majority. If Prestage is the presiding officer and a split vote occurs, the motion fails.
Meyers spoke in support of Wong during Thursday’s meeting. “I’ve consulted multiple knowledgeable attorneys who advised me that, in their opinion, Judge Daniel Wong remains the Fort Bend County judge under the Texas Constitution’s holdover provision because no successor has been sworn into office to replace him.”
Wong supporters have characterized the efforts to remove him from office as mudslinging and bullying. Critics of Wong, including McCoy, speculated that the Republican visiting judge’s temporary appointment of Wong was an effort to give the GOP an advantage in the November election. Wong wasted no time proposing policies, hiring staff and calling press conferences to highlight his accomplishments.
“Immediately after a meeting, he starts putting out things about how he’s bringing more efficiency to the county, passing policy and touting these lies that policies have been sitting on the judge’s desk for years, and it’s just like, what a fraud,” McCoy told the Press earlier this week.
McCoy and Prestage Could Take Legal Action
McCoy and Prestage met with reporters after they walked out of Thursday’s meeting and suggested that a lawsuit could be forthcoming to remove Wong from office.
“What we have now is a body that is primed to operate without the legal authority to do so,” McCoy said. “We need to focus on doing the people’s business. What Mr. Prestage and I offered to our colleagues today is that we can proceed [without Wong]. There is nothing on this agenda that is critical for Mr. Wong to participate in.”
There’s also a concern about a person who is not fully qualified participating in an executive session discussion, McCoy added. “It would be the statesman thing to step aside, but that’s not what we got today,” he said. “The burden is on Mr. Wong and his team to produce a legitimate order from a judge appointing him to this role. The only order appointing Mr. Wong is no longer valid. That means that, to protect the rights of the people of Fort Bend County, to pursue legal remedies, that is what we’re exploring right now. We are working on that actively as we speak.”
Prestage said he didn’t sleep the night before and is deeply concerned by “evil actions” that he believes could destroy the community. As the commissioner exited the building, he said to reporters, “God bless Fort Bend County.”
Democrats Call Out Wong’s “Poor Leadership”
It’s unclear what will happen with three policies Wong pushed through two weeks ago, while his control of the court was not being questioned.
In a contentious June 11 meeting, Wong got a majority to approve a policy stating that commissioners must unanimously consent to items such as proclamations before they appear on the agenda, which McCoy says is a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“That means you’re going to be pre-polling members of commissioners court, which is not legal,” McCoy said. “They’re trying to find every which way to slap me down, which is unfortunate because there are residents getting hurt in the process.”
McCoy says the policy came about because Wong didn’t like a proclamation recognizing Muslim-American Heritage Month and refused to add to the agenda a separate proclamation to recognize a high school track and field athlete.
Also at the June 11 meeting, Wong refused to take questions or provide additional information to commissioners on an artificial intelligence policy his office proposed. McCoy attempted to clarify which version of the policy was being considered and questioned why a clean copy of the proposal wasn’t attached to agenda backup items for public review prior to the meeting.
Wong appeared anxious to adopt the policy, saying repeatedly that revisions could be made later and ignoring a plea to table the item for two weeks. “It’s not set in stone; it’s not bible,” he said.
Prestage then accused Wong of exhibiting poor leadership and showing disrespect by not letting commissioners ask questions. Wong responded by saying that he loves and respects the commissioners but wants the court to respect him by referring to him as “Judge Wong” rather than “Mr. Wong.”
Prestage conceded and said, “Judge Wong,” but he made his point about respect.
“You can’t just rush through when folks have questions,” Prestage said. “I think that’s poor leadership. If there are questions about an item that you put on [the agenda], that’s part of the job. You can’t rush and disrespect the court members because they have a question.”
McCoy suggested that the AI policy and others governing court decorum and fraud reporting were railroaded by the Republican majority without public input or an appropriate legal review. As the policies were being discussed, Wong acknowledged that he hired attorney Grady Randle to advise him rather than consulting with Fort Bend County’s elected attorney, Smith-Lawson.
“Republicans on Commissioners Court rammed through illegal policies that put Fort Bend County at serious legal and financial risk,” McCoy said in a statement after the June 11 meeting. “Rather than following the guidance of our elected county attorney, Interim Judge Wong and his right-wing political handlers hired an outside lawyer on a no-bid, taxpayer-funded contract to rubber-stamp their agenda.”
Wong said in a statement last week that the new policies set Fort Bend County “back on solid ground.”
“One of the responsibilities of good government is ensuring that the policies, procedures, and rules governing County operations are current, legally compliant, and reflective of how the County actually conducts business. Unfortunately, that work had been neglected for years,” Wong said.
When Wong repeatedly said during the June 11 meeting that the AI policy had been neglected for two years, McCoy checked him, calling up a staffer who said the document was presented to the court in December 2025.
“It has not taken this court two years to pass this policy,” McCoy said. “Let’s not make statements like that.” The policies passed 3-2, with Wong and the Republican commissioners voting in favor.
Within days of being sworn into office, Wong hired Trever Nehls, the Republican nominee for a U.S. Congressional seat currently held by Nehls’ twin brother Troy, offering him a six-figure salary, well above what other Fort Bend County employees earn. The Nehls brothers are known to be die-hard MAGA Trump supporters. Another contentious hire was that of Republican political commentator Bobby Eberle as communications director for the judge’s office.
In public statements, Wong has said he and his new staff are committed to transparency and restoring public trust in the judge’s office. However, when the judge was appointed in April, his office balked at arranging a phone interview with the Press, asking for questions to be emailed in advance and then not responding to them. This week, when a reporter reached out repeatedly to ask for an interview with Wong, the office did not reply.
