KENDLETON, Texas (Covering Katy News)— Kendleton Mayor Darryl Humphrey agrees to resign and pay restitution to a local business owner in exchange for the District Attorney’s Office dropping charges against him, officials announced late Tuesday night.
Humphrey was charged with abuse of official capacity for allegedly imposing unlawful water and sewer charges on an RV park owner in Kendleton and failing to comply with the park owner’s 2021 and 2022 requests for public information.
Kendleton is a city in western Fort Bend County, located southwest of Sugar Land. It's populated by less that 500 people and was established by emancipated slaves after the Civil War.
Humphrey was charged with Abuse of Official Capacity for allegedly subjecting a Kendleton RV Park owner to unlawful water and sewer charges and for failing to comply with that same RV Park owner’s 2021 and 2022 requests for public information.
The terms of the agreement are that Humphrey is to resign his office by January 1, 2025, and return all his city-owned property at that time. Humphrey is barred from running for office until the expiration of his current term in 2026. Additionally, he is to pay $5,000 in restitution to Todd Doucet, the RV park owner, for attorney fees Doucet expended trying to enforce his lawful open records requests.
The cases were met with legal challenges, including several local witnesses hiring lawyers who filed motions to quash their subpoenas to testify.
Further, the Attorney General’s Office also filed three motions to prevent the testimony of the Public Utility Commission’s witness.
"While we believe in the strength of the case, we would have to overcome the lack of cooperation from multiple witnesses," a statement from District Attorney Brian Middleton Office said. "Once Humphrey offered to resign, we presented the proposed terms to Mr. Doucet. He indicated that he understood this resolution was the best path forward and an agreement was reached."
"Mr. Doucet is understandably upset, and the case did not develop as we would have liked." the satement said.
The D.A.'s office says it communicated with Doucet "every step of the way," and he understood that restitution was not guaranteed even if we won at trial.
Doucet filed a complaint with the Public Utility Commission seeking restitution for his alleged overpayment of the water bill, which remains pending.
"Our goal to end the alleged corruption and restore integrity to the City of Kendleton was achieved," Middleton's Office said. "Humphrey will no longer be in a position to abuse his authority, and if the terms of the agreement aren’t met, we will prosecute and not dismiss the charges. The community will set the standard for Kendleton now when they cast their votes in the next mayoral election."