# Ex-Houston PD Captain Charged After Pulling Gun In Bizarre Voter Fraud Investigation



## RodneyFarva (Jan 18, 2007)

This doesn't pass the smell test. It's really weird and worth following.

Houston, TX

- A former Houston police officer was arrested on Tuesday after a convoluted criminal effort to try to prove a bogus voter fraud conspiracy in Harris County before the election.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office said in a press release on Dec. 15 that former Houston Police Captain Mark Anthony Aguirre went to the authorities with allegations of a massive voter fraud plot that he said was underway in Harris County.

But court documents said that on Oct. 19, Aguirre ran his SUV into the back of a truck to force it to pull over, KRIV reported. 
Court documents showed that after he was arrested, Aguirre told investigators that he was part of a group of private citizens called "Liberty Center" who were conducting an investigation into the ballot scam.

Aguirre told police that he had been conducting surveillance on the driver of the truck for four days and believed he was the mastermind behind a huge ballot scheme, KRIV reported.

He also told police the man had 750,000 fraudulent ballots hidden in the back of his truck, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

There were no ballots in the truck when police found it, according to the district attorney's press release.
When the driver got out of his truck, Aguirre pointed a gun at him, forced him to the ground, and put a knee in his back, according to the court documents.

Bodycam captured Aguirre still kneeling on the man when officers arrived on the scene, according to KRIV.

Aguirre directed officers to a nearby parking lot where his accomplice had taken the man's truck.

Instead, it was filled with air conditioning parts and tools because the man driving the truck was an HVAC technician. 
But what Aguirre did not tell investigators at the time was that he was being paid a total of $266,400 by the Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, KRIV reported.

Prosecutors said Liberty Center deposited $211,400 in the former police captain's account the day after he forced the air conditioning repair truck to the side of the road.

Houston police and the Harris County Election Security Task Force investigated the allegations the man had made, KTRK reported.

They determined that Aguirre's election fraud claims were baseless, KRIV reported. 
Houston police investigated the case and the Public Corruption Division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office is handling the prosecution, according to the press release.

"He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime, and we are lucky no one was killed," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg(DEM) said. "His alleged investigation was backward from the start - first alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened."

Aguirre, 63, was arrested on Dec. 15 and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, KRIV reported.

The charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, KTRK reported. 
Aguirre is being held on a $30,000 bond.

KTRK reported that Aguirre was a Houston police officer for 24 years before he was indefinitely suspended in 2002 following a botched raid on a westside K-Mart.

His attorney called his arrest a political prosecution and said what happened was misrepresented in the charging documents, KTRK reported.

"I think it's a political prosecution. I really do," attorney Terry Yates said. "He was working and investigating voter fraud, and there was an accident. A member of the car got out and rushed at him and that's where the confrontation took place. It's very different from what you're citing in the affidavit."

*HOUSTON - A former Houston police captain was charged with assault on Tuesday after running a man off the road and holding him at gunpoint in an effort to prove what authorities have called a bogus voter fraud scheme.*

Mark Aguirre claimed that an air conditioner repairman was the mastermind of a giant voter fraud scheme. Aguirre said the man's truck was filled with fraudulent ballots when he ran his SUV into it on Oct. 19, according to authorities.

"The defendant stated (the driver) has approximately seven hundred and fifty thousand fraudulent mail ballots and is using Hispanic children to sign the ballots because the children's fingerprints would not appear in any databases," according to an arrest affidavit.

Aguirre told police he and some friends set up a "command post" at a Marriott hotel in suburban Houston and conducted 24-hour surveillance on the repairman for four days, according to the affidavit. He said he then ran the man's truck off the road, pointed a gun at him, forced him onto the ground and put a knee on his back, the affidavit said.

Police who responded to the incident searched the truck and found only air conditioning parts and tools, authorities said. Authorities did not name the truckdriver, who was not hurt.

"A lengthy investigation ... determined allegations of election fraud were unfounded and no evidence of illegal ballots was found," Houston police said.

Aguirre told a police officer at the scene, "I just hope you're a patriot," according to the affidavit.
Lt. Wayne Rubio with the Texas Attorney General's Office later told police that Aguirre had asked his office to conduct a traffic stop for his investigation and when Rubio said he couldn't do that, Aguirre said he would do it himself and "make a citizen's arrest," according to the affidavit.

Aguirre, 63, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court records did not list an attorney for Aguirre.

If convicted, Aguirre faces up to 20 years in prison. Police have not identified any other suspects.

Police say Aguirre was paid $266,400 by Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, a nonprofit organization that is run by GOP party activist Dr. Steven Hotze.

A conservative power broker, Hotze unsuccessfully sued to stop the extension of early voting in Texas for this year's election. He also sued officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, to limit in-person and absentee voting, making allegations without evidence that Democrats were engaged in "ballot harvesting" by gathering votes from individuals who are homeless or elderly.
Allegations by President Donald Trump and others of massive voter fraud have been refuted by several judges, state election officials, an arm of his own administration's Homeland Security Department and Attorney General William Barr.

Hotze was also part of a group of individuals who unsuccessfully tried to challenge the legality of drive-thru voting in Harris County.

Jared Woodfill, an attorney for Hotze, said Liberty Center had employed Aguirre's company and around 20 investigators who were looking into allegations of voter fraud during the election.

Woodfill said he doesn't know if Aguirre was working on the investigation at the time of the alleged assault, but that Liberty Center doesn't approve of such tactics.

"We would never endorse that, saying go pull someone over, put a gun up to their head and make them open up their truck," he said.
Woodfill said he would be "surprised if the allegations were true. That seems out of character for any of the people that would be working under Liberty Center."

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Aguirre's actions "crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime."

"We are lucky no one was killed," Ogg said. "His alleged investigation was backward from the start - first alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened."

Aguirre was fired from the Houston Police Department in 2003 after a botched raid in which nearly 300 people were arrested in a crackdown on illegal street racing. Most who were arrested were not linked to street racing and charges were dropped. Aguirre was tried and acquitted on five counts of official oppression.


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

Retired Whacker who just can't let go!!!!!


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## CCCSD (Jul 30, 2017)




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## RodneyFarva (Jan 18, 2007)

Food for thought Aguirre is a retired Houston Police Captain so I would assume he knows the basics of police policies, procedures, general and constitutional law. Keep this in mind.

He and several other individuals have been surveilling these guys for a while and I would imagine given just his background alone he would want to have collected and/or obtained evidence of a crime prior to any enforcement action, and not go out on a whim.

We are all familiar with the premise of knowing one thing and the ability to prove it. Aguirre tries to report his findings to the local law enforcement and gets blown off. When this happen Aguirre still makes the conscious decision too take drastic actions to expose and stop this potential criminal activity.

Aguirre also knows what severe ramifications could be in store for him if he is wrong. He knows being retired, qualified immunity could no longer legally protect him and is now vulnerable to criminal prosecution, jail time, potential loss of pension, the ability to own a firearm and made to look like a conspiracy theory whack job to the public. But with all this to loose he still does the right thing! Now we are now seeing the media and several political figures poisoning the well of his sanity.

So in summary I will quote a great cop.
"Stand by" ~Lt Pat Rogers.


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

That's all well and good, HOWEVER, the *actions* he took to secure evidence that apparently didn't exist = Whoopsie!


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## RodneyFarva (Jan 18, 2007)

mpd61 said:


> That's all well and good, HOWEVER, the *actions* he took to secure evidence that apparently didn't exist = Whoopsie!


He fucked up I agree, but I think at one point he had something substantial. 
Just a slight oversight.


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## CCCSD (Jul 30, 2017)

RodneyFarva said:


> He fucked up I agree, but I think at one point he had something substantial.
> Just a slight oversight.


MAJOR oversight...

He's an EPIC FAIL. And he gave more ammo to the Left. Remember that.


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