BREAKING: HOUSTON, TX—Criminal charges against conservative leader Dr. Steven Hotze were dismissed today by Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, ending a years-long legal battle stemming from Hotze’s efforts to expose alleged voter fraud in the county.
“I commend the Harris County DA Sean Teare for dismissing my criminal case, ensuring that justice was done,” Hotze said. “For four years I have experienced lawfare for my efforts to expose vote fraud in Harris County. I thank God that I have been vindicated.”
Hotze’s legal team has argued that the prosecution was driven by political animus and a desire to derail his longstanding efforts to reform Harris County elections.
“For four long years, Dr. Hotze has been fighting Kim Ogg’s politically motivated prosecution against him, because of his efforts to stop vote fraud in Harris County,” said Jared Woodfill, Hotze’s attorney and a former chairman of the Harris County Republican Party.
“She weaponized her office in an effort to take out a political opponent, Dr. Hotze. Her lawfare against Dr. Hotze was a violation of the trust voters had placed in her. Dr. Hotze is thankful to DA Sean Teare for recognizing Ogg’s abuse of her office and rightfully dismissing the case against him.”
Hotze’s indictment stemmed from an October 2020 incident in which a private investigator working for his team was involved in a confrontation with David Lopez, an individual suspected of illegal ballot harvesting.
Though Hotze was not present at the scene, he was later indicted on multiple charges, including aggravated assault and unlawful restraint. In 2024, the charges were escalated to include organized criminal activity and aggravated robbery, along with a hate crime designation added in January 2025.
According to court filings, the DA’s office collaborated with civil attorneys representing Lopez, allegedly using discovery from the civil suit to support a criminal indictment—an approach Hotze’s attorneys say violated his Fifth Amendment rights.
The civil lawsuit was filed in 2021 by attorneys Dicky Grigg and Scott Brazil, who have represented Democratic Party interests in the past. Woodfill has alleged that this overlap demonstrates political coordination aimed at undermining Hotze’s influence.
Hotze is widely known in Texas for championing Christian conservative causes, including his lawsuit last year against the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector for failing to remove ineligible voters from the rolls and his two federal lawsuits against the Texas Senate for violating the U.S. and Texas Constitutions during the Paxton impeachment trials.
His recent efforts have prioritized the GOP priority “Keep Texas elections secure,” and he has uncovered more than 400,000 questionable voter registrations in Harris County prior to the 2024 general election.
Ogg, who lost her reelection bid to Teare in 2024, has since called on the FBI to investigate her successor, further escalating political tensions.
Dr. Hotze’s case was dismissed by Judge Emily Muñoz Detoto in the 177th Criminal District Court. Detoto, a Republican, won the bench in November 2024. Supporters of Hotze hope that the new leadership and the recent dismissal of criminal charges signal a turn toward accountability and justice.
