Residents file MUD voter complaint; court upholds Heath's conviction

A handful of Montgomery County residents hope government officials will investigate municipal utility district voters, especially with a host of recent MUD bonds totaling a few billion dollars in the county being passed by a small number of temporary voters in those areas.

With no permanent resident constructed in many of these areas, voters are brought in, at times living in mobile homes and running the very elections they are voting in, where there are only a few voters registered leading up to the vote. When the election is over, the voters normally move out of their temporary housing and off the property, while the developers are able to use the bond money to build needed infrastructure for the project. The debt from those bonds are passed on to those who purchase property in the district.

Jim Doyle, whose wife and daughter were convicted of voter fraud in 2014 after they changed their address and voted in The Woodlands Road Utility District board election in 2010, filed a complaint with county, state and federal officials urging them to look into the legality of the MUD voter system. In the RUD case, several residents changed their home addresses to a hotel address located within the RUD in order to vote in the May 2010 RUD board of directors election.

"This is all wrong," Doyle said. "If they want to do a MUD, the developer should build the sewage treatment plant, he should build the roads or whatever it is. … Then when he has people living there, he should turn the MUD over to them."

In the complaint, Doyle and others claim the MUD voter system constitutes illegal bribery, alleging the developer is paying the voters to vote a certain way in the election.

Officials with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said they cannot comment on whether they received complaints or are investigating any alleged wrongdoing. According to Texas DPS Sgt. Erik Burse, the Texas Rangers did receive a complaint that is being reviewed in Austin.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office said they have not received a complaint.

Heath's conviction

Doyle's complaint comes on the heels of a victory for state prosecutors in their illegal voting case against Woodlands RUD voter Adrian Heath. The Court of Criminal Appeals refused to hear Heath's case again Wednesday, meaning his three-year prison sentence could start within a month.

Heath is one of 10 people accused of voting illegally in a May 2010 Woodlands RUD election. The 10 individuals changed their voting address to that of a Woodlands hotel, checked into the hotel and ousted the RUD board incumbents in a 10-2 vote.

However, the three incumbents, Gene "Ed" Miller, Bill Neill and Winton Davenport, filed suit alleging the results were obtained by illegal votes. A visiting judge ruled that the 10 Montgomery County residents who voted did not reside within the WRUD boundaries and were "fraudulent," meaning their votes were thrown out and Miller, Neill and Davenport were reinstated.

The 10, including Heath, claimed they consulted with state officials before changing their voter registration addresses to The Residence Inn in The Woodlands. Heath and three others were convicted of voter fraud, while voters Peter Goeddertz and Thomas Curry received pretrial probation in order to avoid prosecution. The other four were never charged.

The Court of Criminal Appeals declined to review Heath's case, which triggers a chain reaction that can lead to Heath's incarceration within 30 days. His attorney Jay M. Wright said he hopes the U.S. Supreme Court can intervene.

Wright plans on filing a petition for writ of certiorari, which asks the high court to review the legality of a person's conviction. If the court agrees to hear it, they could halt Heath's incarceration until they make a decision, Wright said.

"With the U.S. Supreme Court, we're going on federal constitutional issues," Wright said. "Basically a person in the military can use a place as his residence for voting purposes where he's never even been, much less he has ever lived. … Under equal protection, so should Adrian Heath and the RUD voters."

Community activist John Wertz filed a letter with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office Thursday asking Paxton to commute Heath's sentence. It was the AG's office, headed by Gov. Greg Abbott at the time, that prosecuted Heath and the others in the RUD case.

"What the rent-a-voters, Heath and (other RUD voters) ... have all done is allowed under that law," Wertz said. "The lawbreakers are the developers who are giving the cheap rent to those rent-a-voters in turn for their votes in the RUD elections."

Wright said he plans on filing the U.S. Supreme Court writ petition well within the 90-day timeline.