A Houston man affiliated with an extremist group caught up in false conspiracy theories about voting fraud took the law into his own hands against an innocent citizen and now faces prison time.
Believing an air conditioner repairman was hiding 750,000 fake ballots in his work truck, and using Hispanic children to sign them, he set up a “command post” at a hotel, kept the repairman under surveillance for several days, then decided to make a “citizen’s arrest.”
On October 19, 2020, Mark Aguirre (photo, left), 63, who was fired from the Houston police force years ago for bungling police work, intentionally rear-ended the repairman’s truck to force it off the road, held a gun to the driver’s head, forced him on the ground, put a knee on his back, and waited for the real cops to arrive.
When they did, they arrested Aguirre, who now faces aggravated assault charges that could get him 20 years in prison. (I’m curious why he isn’t charged with armed kidnapping, too.) “He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime, and we are lucky no one was killed,” the Harris County, Texas, D.A. told ABC13, a Houston TV station (read story here).
After Aguirre told the cops about the alleged ballot plot, they searched the repairman’s truck, but only found tools and parts.
Before the incident, Aguirre had tried to get state authorities “to conduct a traffic stop for his investigation” and when told they wouldn’t do that, “said he would do it himself,” according to court papers.
Aguirre, who was working as a private investigator and estate liquidator, got paid $266,400 for this case by a group calling itself “Liberty Center” (details here) headed by Dr. Steven Hotze (photo, right), a rightwing extremist (who apparently makes big bucks promoting wellness) recently involved in lawsuits against public officials objecting to Covid-19 restrictions and alleging election fraud, and had demanded that National Guard troops be used to kill protest rioters (read about him (here), and read more about this story here and here.
God gave people brains to use. Here’s what this unthinking, brainless caper likely will get Mr. Aguirre:
- A prison term
- A civil suit and financial ruin
- Loss of his private investigator’s license
- Prohibited from having firearms
- Notoriety he’ll never live down
- Looking like a credulous fool
It isn’t worth it.