Former Houston water department manager now in custody after felony charges in shady water line repair contracts
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg credited Amy Davis’ ‘DRAINED’ investigation for the public corruption investigation
HOUSTON – The former city of Houston water department manager is now in custody after KPRC 2 broke the news Thursday that seven people at the center of the water line repair contract scandal are criminally charged.
KPRC 2 reporter Amy Davis has spent nearly two years investigating the city’s water department and exposing its issues. In November, Davis exposed questionable contracts within the City of Houston Public Works department. This work sparked a criminal investigation that led to the indictments.
Patrece Lee, the former Houston Public Works maintenance manager, is now charged with abuse of official capacity and four counts of bribery. Her brother, Andrew Thomas, is charged with abuse of official capacity. Daniele Hurts, a city contract employee, is charged with abuse of official capacity and bribery. The other four defendants were contractors and business owners charged with bribery for making payments to Lee in exchange for steering the water line repairs, inspections and city payments their way.
According to court documents, in 2020, Lee was the Public Works maintenance manager. Her responsibility included overseeing who fixed the water leaks in the city of Houston.
Court documents allege Lee was given autonomy for recommending vendors with little oversight from her direct supervisors Venus Price and former director Carol Haddock. Both admit they would have never known Lee was orchestrating such crimes because the business owners failed to disclose that they had made payments to Lee. All contractors must fill our what’s called a Conflict of Interest Questionnaire or “Form CIQ.” The business owners all checked “no” next to the box that asks if Lee was likely to receive taxable income from the vendor.
“Abuse of official capacity punishes public employees and officials for using their position to steal,” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. “We just want to thank Channel 2, because without your work, we wouldn’t have called in the Rangers.”
Texas Ranger Jonathon Ryan Christian broke down Lee’s criminal enterprise into three schemes:
Scheme 1:
Lee Steered the city’s business, including emergency purchase orders to qualified companies who would hire her company KB3 Construction for consulting services. Lee used the opportunity to take in five and six-figure payments.
Scheme 2:
This was the same as the scheme one, but in these cases, the Ranger says Lee targeted inexperienced companies who willingly made payments to Lee to get paid faster or to get bigger and better future contracts. Four companies would pay more than $322,000 directly to Lee or her company KB3 Construction.
Scheme 3:
Lee expanded funneling money directly from the city through her brother’s business LCI. Because Lee was a manager for the City of Houston Public Works, she was able to secure more than $400,000, and court records state she transferred all but $20,000 to her own company. From all three schemes explained in the court documents, Christian says Lee received nearly $750,000 in kickbacks and city of Houston payments, on top of her $99,941.08 annual city salary.
“When your reports aired publicly and revealed information that itself established reasonable suspicion that Patrice Lee and others might be involved in a theft scheme of our city water funds, I contacted the Rangers,” Ogg told Davis. “Our public corruption division saw the story. We were concerned. We said, let’s look at the documents.”
Lee was scheduled to appear in court for a probable cause hearing Friday at 1 p.m. According to court documents, she is asking for a court-appointed attorney. KPRC 2 will update this story with the results of that court hearing when they’re available.
Need a full refresher on the KPRC 2 ‘DRAINED’ Investigation and Public Works questionable contracts?
November 16, 2023: Millions of dollars in questionable Houston water department contracts uncovered by KPRC 2 Investigates
November 30, 2023: Houston Public Works employees out of work after KPRC 2 Investigation exposes millions in fraudulent contracts
November 2023: ‘The problem is no one cares’: Houston Mayoral candidates bring up water bill issues
December 5, 2023: ‘We really sat in our trucks, watched YouTube’: City contractor comes forward on questionable water repair contracts
December 18, 2023: Suspended water employee authorized $116K payment to her brother after city of Houston started investigation
December 20, 2023: DRAINED: Who is investigating questionable city contracts? What is the Office of the Inspector General?