Taral Patel campaign via Facebook

A Fort Bend politician accused of creating fake Facebook accounts to attack his opponents is facing new accusations.

According to a search warrant, prosecutors believe Taral Patel may have also impersonated a judge on social media. Patel is the Democratic nominee for Fort Bend County Commissioner Precinct 3.

He was arrested last month after allegations that he used a fake Facebook account to attack opponents and post racist comments under his own campaign page.

After the arrest, investigators obtained a search warrant for Patel’s phone. They found a Facebook account on the phone under the name Surendran Pattel, the 240th District Court Judge for Fort Bend County. The account was linked to the email address [email protected].

Investigators interviewed the judge, who said he had not created the account.

Court records show that Taral Patel’s criminal case was assigned to the judge’s court, but was transferred to another court earlier this week.

The judge told KPRC – which first reported on the new allegations – that he was recusing himself because of investigators’ latest discovery and because he knew Patel.

Taral Patel has not yet been charged with impersonating this judge, court records show.

Prosecutors have requested information from Facebook related to the fake account for the judge.