Fort Bend County Democratic Party votes to remove party chair from office

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The Fort Bend County Democratic Party takes another hit at the announcement that the party chair, Fred Taylor, has been removed from office. This follows allegations that Taylor spent $97,000 through 42 unauthorized purchases. Taylor denies those allegations.

"No, so the bank statements don't lie," Taylor said.

Fred Taylor said his removal from office is to protect others in the Democratic Party. Taylor claims that, under previous leadership, he was the one to discover financial mismanagement. He said he was getting pressure to file a complaint with the Texas Rangers when he was ousted. He now wishes he had filed that complaint earlier, but said he wasn't ready to name names because of the positions they currently hold in office. ABC13 reporter Lileana Pearson asked him if he had allegations against current officials, and if that should have been a good reason to name them.

"It should be, but if we have this situation where I am always sitting in front of news cameras because of things that happen in the Fort Bend County Democratic Party, it continues to give us a blackout, continues to give us not a really good look," Taylor said.

Jonathan Marcantel is the party secretary and now the acting chair. He would not make any comment outside of the party's written statement, which said on Monday Taylor was voted out by the State Democratic Executive Committee. The final vote was 73 to 12 with 6 people abstaining. He wouldn't even comment on why they voted Taylor out.

Taylor said that as an elected official, he cannot be removed this way and plans to continue acting as chair.

"To think that they have the power to remove an elected official, I'm an elected official by the people of Fort Bend County, that body did not elect me," Taylor said.

Now, Taylor plans to file a complaint against several people in the democratic party with the Texas Rangers in the next 24 hours. He claims to have the bank statements, receipts, and documents to back up his claims.

"The more I dug into past bank accounts, I just found so many things," Taylor said.

Recently, the Fort Bend Democratic Party has faced turmoil as County Judge KP George and former Precinct 3 Commissioner candidate Taral Patel have been criminally charged over allegations they posted racist attacks against themselves on social media. Patel pleaded guilty, and George has yet to stand trial but denies the allegations.

Taylor said he's not happy with how his party is handling his situation, given the recent events.

"One thing that I pride myself in when I got elected, I said, 'I will be transparent, you can hold me accountable, and I will hold myself to the highest integrity,'" Taylor said.

ABC13 asked Marcantel about the allegation Taylor made, but said the party is not responding at this time.

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