Grand jury indicts former HPD captain accused in bogus voter-fraud scheme
HOUSTON - A former Houston police captain accused of running a man off a road and holding him at gunpoint to prove a bogus voter fraud conspiracy was indicted by a grand jury for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Mark Anthony Aguirre, who was no longer on the force at the time of the incident, was arrested and charged in December 2020. He was indicted on Tuesday.
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The second-degree felony is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
"He crossed the line from dirty politics to the commission of a violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg previously said about the case. "His alleged investigation was backward from the start, first alleging a crime occurred and then trying to prove it happened."
The Harris County District Attorney's office says Aguirre, 64, went to authorities with pre-election claims that a massive voter fraud scheme was underway in Harris County.
According to a court document, the former captain reportedly told police shortly after the October 19, 2020, incident, that he was part of a group of private citizens called, "Liberty Center," who were conducting a civilian investigation into the alleged ballot scheme.
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According to the court document, Aguirre admitted he had been conducting surveillance on the victim for four days, believing the victim was the mastermind of a giant fraud, and there were 750,000 fraudulent ballots in a truck he was driving.
The victim turned out to be an innocent and ordinary air conditioner repairman.
Aguirre allegedly ran his SUV into the back of the victim's truck to get him to stop and get out, according to the document. When he got out of the truck, Aguirre allegedly pointed a handgun at him, forced him to the ground, and put his knee on the man’s back. The image was reportedly captured on the body-worn camera of a police officer.
Officials say there were no ballots in the truck, which was filled with air conditioning parts and tools.
The district attorney’s office says Aguirre never told police that he had been paid a total of $266,400 by the Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, with $211,400 of that amount being deposited into his account the day after the incident.
The election fraud claims were found to be baseless after a thorough investigation.