Texas City Fraud
A brewing scandal at Texas City City Hall: an employee busted for online impersonation of one of the mayor’s biggest critics.
After watching, you’ll be asking: What did the mayor know?
A Texas City scandal
“Facebook live, Facebook live,” Joseph Lowry said.
“I don’t like him. He’s a racist,” Lowry added.
La Marque City Councilman Joseph Lowry doesn’t mince words.
He’s been in a social media war with Dedrick Johnson, the dancing mayor of Texas City.
Boy, has it gotten ugly.
The attacks clearly got under the mayor’s thin skin.
“Usually, the mayor’s office does not respond to trolls,” Johnson said in a video.
Johnson is facing a mountain of complaints that he’s running the city like a dictatorship, stifling council debate, and using cops who should be on the street as bodyguards.
“He does mobster stuff. He’s got a mobster mentality, he’s a thug,” Lowry said.
We’ve tried to warn folks in Texas City before.
We’ve filed suit against the city for withholding public records and filed a criminal complaint against the city secretary, Rhomari Leigh.
We kept up with Lowry’s Facebook war until he was banned from the city’s Facebook page. He’s not the only one.
“They actually sent me a list of people that they blocked on social media and it’s growing on a daily basis for anyone who opposes the mayor’s conduct and how he is running the city,” Lowry said.
And then this happened:
“Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Texas City Tales Unsolved. My name is Rhomari,” said Leigh in a podcast episode.
“And I’m Jennifer,” added Jennifer Laird, Texas City Communications Director.
The city secretary and the Texas City Communications Director, Jennifer Laird, began a podcast on all the happenings down in Texas City.
Now they’re talking about unsolved crimes.
And a weird event occurred—Joseph Lowry was suddenly back on the city’s Facebook page and complimenting the podcast.
“It’s exactly the kind of conversation our communities need,” Lowry commented.
But that wasn’t the real winner.
Lowry complimented the mayor for standing up to bullies.
“I trust him,” Lowry wrote.
The comment was aimed at the big Margaritaville 55 and older development that was planned for Texas City—a billion dollar deal.
The chamber is all excited, but the mayor has stopped the project.
He’s forbidden councilmembers from bringing it up.
“Just one problem,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
Lowry is a big supporter of Margaritaville.
It wasn’t that Joseph Lowry who posted.
It was allegedly this guy, Derek Miller, an employee of the city’s communications department, a multimedia specialist.
He’s been arrested and charged with felony online impersonation for creating the fake Lowry profile.
“I think this guy is the fall guy, but I believe there is more than one bad actor and I think that everybody there at city hall knew about it,” Lowry said.
“You think the mayor knew?” Dolcefino asked Lowry.
“100 percent. That guy is a crook to the core,” Lowry answered.
“I call you the peddler of fake hate,” Dolcefino said to Taral Patel.
Folks in Fort Bend County know a lot about this growing crime.
We helped expose Taral Patel, a Democratic candidate for county commissioner who is using fake profiles to create hateful messages.
He had worked for the county judge, KP George.
“Did you know he was doing it?” Dolcefino asked George.
“No, absolutely, I have nothing to say,” George responded.
Then George then got indicted, too.
“Can you actually believe somebody thought it was a good idea to create a fake profile of Joseph Lowery, one of Mayor Johnson’s biggest critics? We’re supposed to believe that suddenly he had seen the light, that he loved the mayor. That’s laughable. It’s incredibly stupid, but it happened,” Dolcefino told the camera.
When we asked if Miller allegedly acted alone, the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office told us, “no comment.”
Lowry says he’s documented retaliation.
He claims his criticism for the mayor has been met before with a raid of city inspectors.
Lowry’s concrete company, Six Brothers, leases land in Texas City.
“I put in a question on how to recall the mayor and three days later I get my door kicked in by code enforcement. They ransacked the property,” Lowry said.
“We ask the city for comment, but they don’t really talk to us much. Stay tuned,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“You want to mess with me? Fine. Go ahead. I’ll take it, bring it on. But you want to mess with my business and my employees? Everything’s on the table,” Lowry said.
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