Seven indicted for voter fraud in RUD election

More than a year since a state district judge ruled 10 Montgomery County residents voted fraudulently in a Woodlands election, a grand jury last week indicted seven of those individuals for illegal voting.

The indictments stem from the May 8, 2010, election of The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1. Ten individuals listed their voter registration address as that of a hotel in order to take control of the RUD board.

Former Montgomery County Judge candidate Adrian Heath heads the list of people charged with the third-degree felony. Heath declined comment, saying he was looking into hiring an attorney.

In addition to Heath, the Montgomery County grand jury empanelled in the 9th state District Court handed up indictments for William Berntsen, Thomas Curry, James Alan Jenkins, Peter Goeddertz, Roberta Cook and Sybil Doyle.

Benjamin and Robert Allison were listed as co-defendants but were not indicted. Richard McDuffee had been among the three challengers who captured an at-large position before the ruling was overturned, but he was not listed as a co-defendant.

According to indictments released by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the defendants voted in an election they knew they were not eligible to vote.

“To-wit: Defendant voted in the May 8, 2010 Woodlands Road Utility District Board of Directors election, when he knew he did not reside in the precinct in which he voted,” the indictment stated.

The lengthy, legal tussle started when the 10 individuals changed their voter registration address to 9333 Six Pines Drive in The Woodlands, the location of a Residence Inn hotel. The hotel is included in the RUD’s territory.

McDuffee, Goeddertz and Berntsen each captured an at-large position on the RUD board by a 10-2 margin. Their victory prompted the three incumbents - Gene “Ed” Miller, Bill Neill and Winton Davenport - to file suit against the RUD May 11, 2010, alleging those 10 votes were obtained illegally.

After hearing three days of testimony in the 410th state District Court, Senior District Judge P.K. Reiter declared the three incumbent board members as the rightful winners of the contest.

Reiter based his ruling on “clear and convincing” evidence that the voters’ registration applications and the 10 votes casts were “fraudulent.”

Eight of the individuals - excluding Cook and Doyle - testified it was their intent to establish the hotel as their residence and take control of the RUD board.

However, Reiter said his final judgment was based on evidence that none of the 10 “contestees” resided within the boundaries of the RUD “on the date each of them signed a voter’s registration application, nor on May 8, 2010, when they voted, not subsequently.”