- A former Houston police officer was charged Tuesday with grievous bodily harm with a lethal weapon after he was accused of participating in a vigilante program to detect election fraud in Texas.
- The man, Mark Anthony Aguirre, is accused by police of attacking an air conditioning repair technician who he mistakenly believed collected fraudulent Democratic ballots.
- Prosecutors claim that the vigilante group was funded by a conservative group, the Liberty Center for God and Country.
- A fundraiser launched by the Liberty Center describes a similar effort as the prosecutor’s office.
- “We’re working with a group of private investigators who uncovered this massive election fraud program,” the fundraiser said.
- You can find more stories on the Business Insider homepage.
A former Texas police captain was arrested and charged with participating in a vigilante fraud detection program that prosecutors said culminated in an armed confrontation with an air conditioning repairman falsely accused of harvesting counterfeit ballot papers for this year’s US election.
Houston ABC’s subsidiary KTRK reported that Mark Anthony Aguirre was arrested Tuesday and charged by the Harris County prosecutor for aggravated assault with a lethal weapon.
A police affidavit states that Aguirre, a former member of the Houston Police Department, spent four days in October as part of a team monitoring a man’s mobile home who the team believed had 750,000 counterfeit ballots and ” Hispanic children used to sign the ballots “because the children’s fingerprints would not appear in any database. “
The surveillance reportedly culminated in an attack on the mechanic on October 19, who at 5:30 a.m. “noticed the driver of a black SUV drove into his lane and nearly hit his vehicle,” police said. The mechanic informed the police that the SUV had rammed his vehicle. Aguirre was accused of pointing a gun at the driver, forcing him to the ground and laying a knee on his back.
Two more vehicles then stopped, the affidavit said, and another, nameless person searched the truck and found nothing. In fact, police officers who arrived at the scene during the incident said the truck “contained equipment compatible with DL’s job as an air conditioning repair technician”. (DL was the pseudonym in the affidavit for the mechanic.)
According to an affidavit, the police also searched the mechanic’s mobile home and found, with his consent, that there were “no indications of electoral fraud or voting”.
Harris District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a press release Tuesday that Aguirre confessed to being part of a larger group investigating right-wing allegations of election fraud. As part of this effort, bank records show that Aguirre received more than $ 266,000 from a Houston-based group, the Liberty Center for God and Country, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit. The vast majority received the day after the October 19 attack.
“He crossed the line between dirty politics and committing a violent crime, and we’re lucky no one was killed,” Ogg said. “His alleged investigation was backward from the start – first alleging a crime and then trying to prove it happened.”
A fundraiser on GoFundMe that was launched on October 10 and continues to operate hours after news of Aguirre’s arrest shows that the Liberty Center raised nearly $ 70,000 to uncover election fraud before election day.
“Harris County’s Socialist Democratic leadership has developed a massive postal voting plan to steal the general election,” says organizer, Dr. Steven Hotze, on the side. “We are working with a group of private investigators who uncovered this massive election fraud program. You can help us uncover and stop this massive election fraud program by making a donation here.”
GoFundMe removed the page, saying the fundraiser was in breach of the Terms of Service after Business Insider contacted it.
On Facebook, the Freedom Center for God and Land uses violent rhetoric to describe its political opponents on the left.
Screenshot / Facebook
Hotze is a well-known right-wing activist and holistic medicine promoter, dubbed the “Houston GOP Powerbroker” by The Texas Tribune. In July, Hotze urged Governor Greg Abbott to use the Texas National Guard against Black Lives Matter protesters, ordering them to be “shoot to kill if one of those sons of bitches starts ranting … That.” is the only one to restore order. Kill them. “
Hotze no longer appears to see Abbott as a political ally as he has since launched another fundraiser aimed at drawing legal challenges to the governor’s COVID-19 health orders. The Liberty Center Facebook page is also calling for Abbott, dubbed the “tin-pot dictator,” to be “tarred and feathered.”
Another post, standing between discredited allegations of electoral fraud, calls for violence against leftists who previously brought the group and its founder together with democratic officials. “Christians, there is no compromise between Christianity and communism,” it says. “The only good communist is a dead communist.”
The Liberty Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Do you have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com
