Texas Democratic Commissioner Candidate Charged With Fabricating Fake Online Racist Messages

The Democratic challenger for the Fort Bend County Precinct 3 commissioner in Texas is facing charges for allegedly creating fake social media posts writing racist comments directed at himself.

Commissioner Andy Meyers, the Republican incumbent, requested the Fort Bend County district attorney’s office begin an investigation in October into the social media posts directed at Taral Patel, his opponent, ABC 13 reported.

Meyers requested the investigation after Patel posted a statement last September with screenshots of various racial hate comments. Many of the usernames were concealed, but Meyers said he recognized an account named “Antonio Scalywag” as someone who had attacked him before.

Investigators found that the fake account used a photo of someone else and issued a subpoena to Facebook and Google. They were able to obtain data that matched Patel’s address, phone number, Texas driver’s license number, bank card number and other personal information, the outlet reported.

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