A Final Warning
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On the final day of early voting, we send a message to Fort Bend County voters. Please stop the peddlers of fake racism.
“Vandals target election signs in Fort Bend County’s race for Precinct 3 commissioner,” announces KPRC news.
It’s kindergarten time in Fort Bend County… Someone is stealing or destroying campaign signs…
Like the signs reminding voters about the guy we call the peddler of fake racism… Taral Patel.
Maybe the sign stealers hope if they vanish the signs… Patel’s nine criminal indictments will vanish from the memories of voters and they will make him a county commissioner.
We hope they remember what he did.
“All of our signs slashed and left on the ground,” said Fort Bend Republican Party Chairman Bobby Eberle.
“The Republican party here has put up a sign that says end democrat corruption with 5 mugshots on them, and they just started going up this weekend and they the democrats came out and in force and sliced them all up,” added Eberle.
The sign stealing started days ago… The Kroger at the Riverstone neighborhood, the home of many South Asian voters… 12 signs vanished… Signs paid for by a Fort Bend political action committee.
“We are a nonpartisan PAC, we look for candidates that support our values, ethics, morals, we primarily are present in Fort Bend County,” said Pillar PAC Member Mohammed Imaduddin.
Mohammed says his political action committee had endorsed Patel in the Democratic Primary… Until prosecutors said Patel had faked social media profiles and said ugly things about the South Asian population.
“If a candidate is dishonest and unethical to get into office, will he be honest and ethical after he gets into office?” inquires Mohammed.
There were eyewitnesses to the sign thief at Riverstone… Someone driving a white Porsche. We tracked the license plate.
“The underhanded unethical approach needs to be prosecuted needs to be stopped we intend to file charges 100 percent,” adds Mohammed.
The car was registered to a well-known social media influencer and beauty blogger Deepika Mutyala…
But it was her mom, another registered owner, who was driving the car… Padmasri Mutyala.
She’s the former President of Tana… the Telugu Association of North America. Telugu is one of the many languages spoken in India…
Look at this report from the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office.
Mutyala had a story… claiming she was really a supporter of incumbent Andy Meyers… and was taking the anti-Patel signs to distribute them around town.
But if that was true… why did the deputy find the signs in the recycling bin?
The district attorney said he was investigating the sign stealing…
But the Democratic Sheriff Eric Fagan waited days to finally issue a citation.
“This is all just a continuing pattern of the Democrats using dirty tricks,” said Eberle.
Patel heads into election day losing many of his early supporters… like Precinct 4 Commissioner Dexter Mccoy.
And Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
“I thought he was a young kid with a bright future, getting into politics at the right time, and then the scandal comes out then we see how he conned all of us,” explained Mohammed.
We suspected KP George knew more about this scheme from the very beginning.
The DA indicted the County Judge in September for his own fake racism posts… He’s still under investigation for trying to destroy evidence.
The scandal prompted protests at the Fort Bend County Courthouse… Calls for the Judge to resign… and Patel to get off the ballot… Neither happened.
“I am a muslim, so I’ve been through 9/11, I know what real racism is like. The truth is racism does exist, we’ve come a long way, but with him faking all this, this puts all of the other genuine work in disarray, throws it down the drain. His selfish actions hurt everyone. He did not care who he was hurting, as long as he got into office” declares Mohammed.
Last year racist social media posts started appearing… Attacking Patel and the judge… They were ugly… Calling him a dirty monkey worshipper terrorist… Suggesting they were coming from Republicans.
Some of the names were just fakes… others had pictures of unsuspecting real families.
“They’ve thrown out this race card in the past and republicans tend to just run and hide and say hey please don’t say that anymore, but this time we’re fighting back, and I think that’s really what has them on edge,” says Eberle.
Patel won the Democratic primary before the law caught up with him.
The question now is, will voters send him a message on Election Day?
“I think it’s absolutely wrong to try and divide the community for personal gain,” states Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers.
The long-time incumbent in the Precinct 3 race is him.
“Some people see that it is to their advantage to divide the community to gain power, and I just think that’s wrong,” continues Meyers.
Meyers has faced relentless attacks by one of Patel’s buddies Shapnik Khan… His PAC Fort Bend United has given Patel tens of thousands of dollars….
And paid for a new ad that, get this… Tries to convince folks that exposing this guy is some kind of Jim Crow tactic….
Hey Shapnik, the District Attorney Brian Middleton is a Democrat… And he’s black.
Dolcefino: “How can you support Taral Patel after what he did?”
Shapnik Khan: “He’s my little brother man.”
On Facebook, Khan even posted a picture of Meyers in the costume of an Indian king to suggest he’s weird and trying to somehow steal Indian culture.
In fact, Meyers says he was asked by the host of a South Asian event to wear it.
“I don’t put any credibility to anything that Shapnik Khan says or does,” stated Meyers.
Shapnik Khan is not an engineer… But recently became a principal of Civitas Engineering… Getting contracts in Fort Bend County.
Dolcefino: “You don’t think they hired you for your political influence?”
Shapnik Khan: “No.”
Civitas was born out of a history of scandal. The remnants of Kit Professional.
The founder of that company got busted in a years-long bribery scheme.
“His personal agenda is to make as much money through his engineering firm as he can and he knows I’m not a guy who pays to play,” adds Meyers. “He wants a County Commissioner who will direct as much engineer work in engineering business to his firm as possible.”
We raised a question about the Civitas connection weeks ago…
Just days after we questioned the involvement of Khan and State Representative Ron Reynolds… The company temporarily vanished their leaders from their website.
Voters have a clear choice… Will they reject a guy who faces a possible prison sentence for peddling fake racism?
“His selfish actions hurt everyone. He did not care who he was hurting as long as he got into office,” shared Mohammed.
“It’s a very family-oriented honorable community”, reinforced Eberle, “We’re not asking people to become Republican overnight. Just vote Republican this time because the alternative is people that not only break the law but dishonor the community.”
