Telegraph Reporters
27 September 2024 11:40pm
A judge has been accused of trolling himself with fake racist social media posts when he ran for re-election.
A grand jury indicted Fort Bend County Judge KP George on a misdemeanour charge of misrepresentation of identity of a candidate.
The indictment alleges that on Sept 26, 2022, he posed as a Facebook user named “Antonio Scalywag” in a campaign communication posted on the judge’s Facebook page “with intent to injure a candidate or influence the result of an election”.
However, at the time, Mr George, a Democrat, was running for re-election as county judge against Trever Nehls, who is the twin brother of Texas congressman Troy Nehls.
A county judge serves as the chief executive officer of a county in Texas.
In a Sept 17 search warrant, authorities accused Mr George of working with his former chief of staff, Taral Patal, to use the “Antonio Scalywag” alias to post racist social media posts targeting himself in order to garner sympathy.
After the search warrant was issued, Mr George’s cell phones and computer were seized.
Misinterpretation of identity
Mr George, who was born in India and later became a US citizen, is the first person of colour to serve as county judge in Fort Bend, a diverse county located southwest of Houston. He was first elected as county judge in 2018.
Mr Patal, who is running for a county commissioner position in the Nov 5 election, was indicted earlier this month on four charges of online impersonation and four charges of misinterpretation of identity.
Authorities allege Mr Patal also used the “Antonio Scalywag” alias to make racist posts to help him in his own run for county commissioner.
A spokesman for Mr George said in an email on Thursday that the county judge would not immediately comment on the indictment.
The Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, which led the investigation, declined to comment. Frank Yeverino, an attorney for Mr Patel, did not immediately reply to a call seeking comment.
In a statement last week, Mr George said he believed he was a witness and not a target of the investigation.
“I have not been charged with any crime, nor do I expect to be,” he said in last week’s statement.
At least one Fort Bend County commissioner, Vincent Morales, called for Mr George to resign following his indictment.
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