From Houston Landing:
Taral Patel, a once-rising political star in Fort Bend County, was indicted Tuesday by the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s office on four felony counts of online impersonation.
Patel was also handed four class A misdemeanor charges, which is punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000, or both. Three were for misrepresentation of identity and one for online impersonation through email.
Investigators allege three of the misdemeanor charges were done with the intent to injure a candidate or influence the result of an election, according to the indictments.
Between the felony and misdemeanor charges, investigators allege Patel is attached to six fake online personas.
Patel is charged with the creation of four fake online personas including, the most notable, Antonio Scalywag, which used the likeness of Needville resident Patrick Ernst, an account impersonating district judge Surrendran Pattel and two accounts under the name Jane Donnie and Jennifer Tremaine.
Patel could not be reached for comment.
All the Facebook accounts were created without the victims’ consent. All four accounts were created between Aug.10 and Dec. 18, 2023, according to the indictment.
Patel was arrested in June after investigators said he used the Scalywag account to post false racist and xenophobic messages about himself online.
The investigation into Patel was prompted by his Republican opponent, incumbent Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers, in October 2023. According to court documents, Meyers recognized the Scalywag account, claiming it had made posts attacking him in the past.
Patel posted on his X account in September 2023 that he was receiving a barrage of hateful messages from Scalywag and others. Many of those hateful Facebook comments featured in the post expressed support for Meyers, who has held the commissioner seat since 1997.
Investigators determined the profile photo on the Scalywag Facebook account belonged to Needville resident Patrick Ernst.
When brought in for questioning, Ernst said he never made the posts or sent direct messages from the account, and he didn’t give anyone consent to do so on his behalf. He considered the messages to be harmful to his reputation, search warrants show.
Ernst did not immediately respond to the Landing’s request for comment.
A similar situation played out after investigators discovered a Facebook account they believed to be impersonating district judge Surendran Pattel.
The Scalywag fake page interacted with the judge’s real Facebook page starting in August 2021. The conversations were friendly in nature until January 2022, when it appeared Pattel took issue with a post Scalywag made, according to the search warrant. The Scalywag account made several attempts to contact Pattel in November 2023, but those attempts went unanswered.
After Patel’s arrest in June, his phone was searched for any user accounts and information stored on his cell phone. The report revealed a Facebook account registered to the name Surrendran Pattel and attached to the email taral@movetexas.org, according to the search warrant.
When approached by investigators about this account, Pattel said the account with his name and photo didn’t belong to him, and he didn’t authorize anyone to create a Facebook account for him, according to search warrants.
Last month, Precinct 4 commissioner Dexter McCoy published an open letter calling on Patel to drop out of the race and encouraging his fellow Democrats to do the same.
“This is about the future of our community, and we cannot stand idly by and act and give our consent for this sort of behavior with our silence,” McCoy told the Houston Landing in August.
Despite calls to drop out, Patel has not dropped out from the commissioner race nor publicly addressed the accusations made against him.
Patel is running for Precinct 3, which covers Sugar Land. He used to serve as Fort Bend County Judge KP George’s chief of staff before serving as a White House liaison for Joe Biden’s administration.
George also faced a similar bout of racist and xenophobic online attacks in 2020 during the COVD-19 pandemic. It is unclear if Patel had any involvement in the comments attacking George years prior.
Among the several emails found on Patel’s phone were at least three campaign email accounts attached to the Judge.
In a statement to the Houston Landing, George said he understands the seriousness of the allegations against Patel.
“We must allow the legal proceedings to unfold, guided by facts and evidence, while respecting the rights of all parties involved,” George said in his statement.
In a statement, Meyers said he prompted the investigation into Patel because of the impacts it would have on the county’s reputation.
“I will not tolerate racism, and I fight it whenever I encounter it,” he said in the statement.
Patel’s arraignment for the charges is set for 1 p.m. Sept. 23 at 301 Jackson Street, Richmond, Texas 77469.
This article first appeared on Houston Landing and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
