FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas (Covering Katy News) – A Fort Bend Independent investigation has revealed disturbing new details about Democrat Taral Patel's alleged harassment of his ex-girlfriend. Patel ran for Fort Bend County Precinct 3 commissioner and was indicted in October 2024 on harassment charges in addition to eight other criminal counts for using fake social media identities against political opponents. Patel allegedly used similar tactics to systematically stalk and harass his ex-girlfriend using fake online identities after their 2021 breakup.
Using the fake persona "Paul Rosenstein," Patel allegedly sent his former girlfriend emails falsely claiming she had been sexually assaulted by him and alleging he had abused other Muslim women. Patel, using the name Paul Rosenstein, even offered to pay for therapy and a hotel if she would take these false accusations public. When she refused and demanded he stop, Patel allegedly escalated by publishing a defamatory article on Medium.com using her photo and personal details.
Patel appeared to be attempting to manipulate his ex-girlfriend into making false sexual assault allegations against him — essentially trying to orchestrate his own false accusation scandal, as he's accused of doing in his recent race against Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers. In that case, investigators used subpoenas to uncover voluminous evidence showing Patel posted fake racist attacks against himself and claimed they were from Meyers supporters. He also used the same Paul Rosenstein email address and identity to harass Meyers.
The harassment of his ex-girlfriend allegedly continued for months despite her blocking him on social media. The harassment included having cookies delivered to her home under another fake identity that she would recognize as him.
Patel pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of misrepresentation of identity by a candidate, and his harassment charge was dismissed as part of the deal.
Patel was defeated 59% to 41% by Meyers in his run for commissioner.
Read the Fort Bend Independent article, which has more details about the alleged harassment of his girlfriend. That story is posted here.
The owner of Covering Katy News, Dennis Spellman, is employed by the Fort Bend County Prcinct 3 Commissioner's Office