In an exclusive interview, Houston Mayor John Whitmire thanked KPRC 2 Investigates reporter Amy Davis for her work to expose a former City of Houston water department manager now accused of taking bribes and stealing millions of taxpayer dollars.
Patrece Lee was taken into custody Thursday night after KPRC 2 broke the news that she and six others at the center of the water line repair contract scandal were charged with bribery, abuse of official capacity, and tampering with government documents. A Harris County Grand Jury handed down the indictments Thursday afternoon.
As part of our ongoing ‘DRAINED’ investigation into botched city water bills, Davis spent months looking into questionable contracts within the Houston Public Works department. That work sparked a criminal investigation that led to the indictments.
During the time Davis was checking on the water line repair contracts last November, Davis repeatedly tried to get then-mayor Sylvester Turner to answer questions about them. When her phone call and email requests for information went unanswered, she went to a public event and, after it was over, approached Turner and asked, “Will you stop payment to the contractors under investigation?”
Turner responded, “Let me stop you. Amy, you are very rude. You came in now, you are interrupting this event - I don’t appreciate that. I will not be talking to you. I told you years ago when you were rude and disrespectful that I was done with you.”
“Because you keep running from questions that are important to taxpayers,” Davis responded.
“I don’t think she was being rude to Mayor Turner. I think she was doing her job,” Mayor Whitmire said Friday during an interview on KPRC 2 News at 4. “We want city government to work for the public. Whether it’s the airport, METRO, the housing authority, we’re not going to allow conflicts of interest and when we suspect criminal activity, we will immediately refer it to the Texas Rangers and the district attorney’s office.”
You can read details from the criminal indictments here.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg tells KPRC 2 it’s unlikely the city will get back any of the stolen taxpayer money. She says in public corruptions cases, restitution would simply mean prison time for a felony conviction against any of the seven people accused.
“Abuse of official capacity punishes public employees and officials for using their position to steal,” said Ogg. “We just want to thank Channel 2, because without your work, we wouldn’t have called in the Rangers.”
Timeline of KPRC 2 investigation into public works contracts