A Texas mayor was arrested and charged with five felonies.
Houston-area Arcola Mayor Fred Burton was charged with illegal voting, fraud, tampering with government records, and misuse of official information.
The illegal voting charges arise from two different elections: Arcola Municipal runoff election in June 2025 and City of Arcola special election in April 2026.
“According to the grand jury indictments, Burton is accused of helping, encouraging, or failing to prevent three people from voting when he knew they were ineligible to do so,” Fox 26 Houston reported.
The three remaining charges against Burton go back to 2023.
KHOU reported:
The mayor of a small Texas town is facing several felonies, according to Fort Bend County court records.
Mayor Fred A. Burton, 68, is charged with two counts of illegal voting, one count of misuse of official information, one count of fraud and one count of tampering with government records, all of which are felonies. He was arrested Tuesday night, according to the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office.
In the illegal voting charges, Burton is accused of telling at least three people to vote in a runoff election while knowing they weren’t eligible to do so.
In the misuse of official information charge, Burton is accused of using insider information to affect a $15,000 City of Arcola contract bid.
In the tampering with government record charge, he’s accused of presenting a fake estimate to defraud the City of Arcola in 2023.
The fraud charge, also stemming from an incident in 2023, alleges Burton got some councilmembers to sign off on two checks with a combined value of between $30,000 and $150,000.
More on this story from Fox 26 Houston:
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