Trump DOJ arrests red state Dem in swing county days before midterms

HOUSTON — Federal prosecutors Thursday announced indictments accusing Fort Bend County Tax Assessor-Collector Carmen Turner of theft of government funds and wire fraud.

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz, joined at a Houston news conference by agents from the regional office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and representatives for the Texas Department of Public Safety, alleged that Turner conspired with others to steal thousands of dollars from programs that receive federal funds.

“If you didn't already hate tax collectors enough already, we are going to give you a few more reasons today,” Reitz said.

Prosecutors said Turner had hired two people as deputy tax clerks, who were in fact working to care for her elderly mother in Houston. One of them, Shermerrylyn Regina Fields, was also indicted Thursday. The other person is cooperating with investigators, Reitz said.

Prosecutors also said Turner hired Victor Calvin Ewing, the father of her adult son, to work in the tax office despite Ewing being employed by an airline company. Ewing, who also was arrested Thursday, allegedly transferred a portion of his Fort Bend income to her.

Fort Bend County Tax Assessor Carmen Turner.

“During this time Fields and Ewing were clocking in logging fake work and then logging out all under the knowledge and direction of Turner,” Reitz said.

All three defendants face decades in prison if convicted.

Turner, a Democrat who has served as Fort Bend County’s tax assessor-collector since 2021, was arrested Thursday morning. She could not be reached for comment, and the tax office didn’t immediately respond to a comment request.

This was not her first run-in with the law.

The U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Texas in 2016 indicted Turner, who was then a private citizen, for bankruptcy fraud. Federal prosecutors alleged that she filed multiple bankruptcy cases to prevent creditors from starting foreclosure proceedings, but did not follow court requirements to file additional documents or submit payment plans. Turner also failed to list all the bankruptcy cases she had filed when she launched a new one, prosecutors said.

The following year, federal prosecutors dismissed most of the charges against Turner after she pleaded guilty to one count of contempt of court. She was sentenced to one year of probation.

Fast-growing and rapidly diversifying, Fort Bend County has been in play for Democrats for the past decade after years of Republican dominance.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the county by seven points, the first time the county went for a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson. Eight years later, President Donald Trump lost to Democrat Kamala Harris by just one point.

The latest indictments against Turner, whose term ends in 2028, were released Thursday in the middle of a hotly contested election season in Texas.

The Department of Justice’s general practice is to not announce headline-grabbing investigations or indictments in the lead up to elections, to avoid the appearance of political interference. This policy, which is an informal tradition rather than a written directive, typically limits investigations and indictments 60 days before elections.

Republican and Democratic administrations have been accused of violating this precedent, but a flurry of recent investigations has drawn criticism of the Trump DOJ’s practices.

Three weeks before the midterms, federal officials raided the home of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Ohmar, a Minnesota Democrat, at 6 a.m. and seized cell phones and notebooks. The Justice Department has not said what she is accused of, beyond an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

And Thursday morning, federal authorities charged a prominent Virginia state senator and critic of President Donald Trump with racketeering and money laundering. While the investigation in state Sen. L. Louise Lucas predates the Trump administration, Lucas criticized the timing of the arrests.

At a news conference announcing the arrest, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the prohibition on pre-election charges is “not even a rule, it’s a practice.”

“The justice manual speaks very clearly about what the Department of Justice can and can’t do, and we cannot bring a charge if our purpose is improper,” Blanche said, according to NBC News.

At the Houston news conference Thursday, Reitz said the Fort Bend elections had nothing to do with the timing of the indictments. It was just how the case came together, he said.

Also Thursday, interim Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong held a news conference about Turner’s arrest. The Republican, who is running to keep his seat, said the episode was the latest sign of corruption from county Democrats.

In 2024, Fort Bend County Judge KP George was indicted for misrepresenting his identity by using a fake social media account to “injure a candidate or influence the result of an election.” He was arrested for money laundering the following year, leading to a sentence of 180 days in jail and five years of probation. The identity charge was subsequently dismissed.

George, elected as a Democrat in 2018 and 2022, had switched parties before the 2024 indictment. The following year, he joined the two Republican county commissioners in approving a new precinct map to strengthen GOP representation on the court, over protests from Democrats and local residents.

In addition, Taral Patel, George’s former chief of staff and a former Democratic county commissioner candidate, pleaded guilty last year to misrepresenting a candidate’s identity.

And earlier this week, a former Fort Bend County deputy constable who made an unsuccessful bid in the Democratic primary for county treasurer was indicted on theft and tampering charges.

“Fort Bend is surrounded by Democrat corruption,” Bobby Eberle, Wong’s communications director, said at the news conference. “Every voter out there should say, ‘Do we want this path, or do we want something different?’”

County Commissioner Dexter McCoy, a Democrat who is running for county judge, said public corruption — regardless of parties — has no place in Fort Bend. But, he added, Wong is no better.

“Fort Bend families are sick and tired of the chaos and corruption Republicans have normalized. And Daniel Wong made it worse,” McCoy added in a post on X. “One of his first acts as interim County Judge was to roll out the welcome mat for Ken Paxton, the most corrupt elected official in Texas.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.