A Houston-primarily based physician and conservative activist is going by means of extreme prison charges following a 2020 incident tied to a botched voter fraud probe.
A large jury handed down an indictment to Steven Hotze, MD, this week on criminal charges of unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a lethal weapon, per records from Harris County District Court docket. The costs stem from Hotze’s alleged involvement in an air-conditioning repairman being held at gunpoint accurate by means of a belief for millions of mistaken mail ballots that basically didn’t exist.
Hotze, 71, whose lawful counsel adamantly denied the costs against him, has lengthy led efforts to push conservative elements, together with helping to safe the 2015 defeat of Houston’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which the physician denounced as “pro-contented,” the Texas Tribune reported. He additionally opposed the legalization of identical-intercourse marriage, and unsuccessfully sued Harris County in 2020 in an attempt to private 127,000 ballots solid by voters at drive-by means of areas invalidated.
The criminal charges middle on an incident that occurred accurate by means of the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. On Oct. 19, 2020, accurate by means of a belief for mistaken ballots, an air-conditioning repairman used to be escape off the avenue and had a gun pointed at his head, the Harris County District Attorney said in an announcement issued quickly after the incident. Even supposing aged Houston Police Capt. Designate Anthony Aguirre used to be arrested and charged for the offense, Aguirre told police that he used to be fraction of a community of non-public residents, customarily called “Liberty Center,” who were conducting a civi