The Harris County District Attorney’s Office dropped four felony charges filed against Republican activist Steven Hotze, bringing an abrupt end to the case accusing him of plotting a election conspiracy-fueled assault on an AC repairman in 2020.
The DA’s office also announced it would drop three of five charges against Mark Aguirre, a private investigator working for Hotze who is accused of attacking the repairman and threatening him with a gun, in a Tuesday news release.
District Attorney Sean Teare, a Democrat, said while the DA’s office believed the attack was related to “a baseless voter fraud conspiracy scheme,” prosecutors could not stand by indictments implicating Hotze, who had been charged with aggravated assault and robbery.
“This deeply troubling case shows how toxic conspiracy theories can fuel real-world violence that endangers people in our community,” Teare said. “We look forward to vigorously prosecuting the remaining charges in this case that stand up to legal scrutiny. However, unlike the previous administration, we believe ethical prosecutors have a responsibility to do so based on facts — not political theater, media spectacle, or the reckless pursuit of headlines.”
Kim Ogg, the former district attorney, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The DA’s office said it conducted an “exhaustive review” of the evidence related to the charges against the men, and determined that the state cannot prove any of the remaining charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt and that those charges should not have been filed.
[…]
The DA’s office is still pursuing one of the aggravated assault charges against Aguirre as well as the unlawful restraint charge. Terry Yates, Aguirre’s lawyer, said he will continue with a motion to dismiss the remaining charges, citing allegations of prosecutorial misconduct during Ogg’s tenure.
Hotze was first charged with aggravated assault and unlawful restraint in April 2022, and then charged with aggravated robbery and engaging in organized criminal activity in August 2024. All of those charges have now been dropped.
[…]
The DA’s office also said it planned to withdraw a request to seek a hate crime enhancement against Aguirre and Hotze. The request, made by a special prosecutor hired during former DA Kim Ogg’s administration, was “found to be meritless,” the news release said. The prosecutor, Warren Diepraam, is no longer working for the DA’s office.
Teare used the announcement to again criticize cases brought by Ogg, whom he defeated during last year’s Democratic primaries and officially replaced in January.
“As we review more cases filed under the previous administration, a pattern has become quite clear: The former district attorney abused the authority of this office to overcharge and investigate those she disagreed with and outsourced high-profile criminal investigations to friends who shared her political views,” said Teare. “That’s not justice and so long as I’m DA, that’s not how we will do business in Harris County.”
See here for some background. I am of course in favor of going as hard as possible against the walking stain that is Steven Hotze, but if Sean Teare says that the evidence isn’t there to support those charges, I will reluctantly believe him. The one good thing about this is that it should clear the way for the civil trial against Hotze to get underway, and that one should be an easier case to prove. If I can’t see Hotze in handcuffs, I can hope to see him get hit with a huge judgment. Let’s get that going now.
UPDATE: More from the Press.