A/C tech held at gunpoint sues GOP activist

An air conditioning repairman who was held at gunpoint last October as part of a right-wing group’s voter fraud investigation has sued the group and its CEO, Houston conservative activist Steven Hotze.

David Lopez, the repairman, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Hotze and his organization, Liberty Center for God and Country, for civil conspiracy, civil theft, and aiding and abetting Mark Aguirre, the former Houston police captain who faces a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the Oct. 19 confrontation with Lopez.

Aguirre told police he was investigating a massive “ballot harvesting” operation on behalf of Hotze’s group. He previously alleged that Lopez had about 750,000 fraudulent mail ballots in his truck and had been “using Hispanic children to sign” the ballots because the youths’ fingerprints would not appear in databases. Lopez’s truck contained only air conditioning parts and tools, authorities said.

Hotze paid Aguirre $266,400 to investigate voter fraud allegations through his group, including more than $211,000 the day after the incident in which the former cop rammed Lopez’s truck and then held him at gunpoint until a Houston police officer happened by. In December, shortly after Aguirre was arrested, Hotze called the assault charge “bogus.”

At the time, Hotze said he would not condone Aguirre’s actions if they were proven true, but he was not worried about being legally implicated as the one funding Aguirre’s investigative work.

Jared Woodfill, Hotze’s attorney, said Tuesday that Hotze had not instructed Aguirre to take any of the actions mentioned in the lawsuit, and contended that Hotze could not be found culpable of any legal wrongdoing.

In the lawsuit, Lopez said he was driving to his first repair job of the day around 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 19 when Aguirre rammed his SUV into the back of Lopez’s truck. After the two men pulled over to the side of the road, the suit says, Aguirre exited his vehicle and pointed a pistol at Lopez.

“David Lopez feared for his life, believing Mark Aguirre was robbing him,” the state district court filing states. “With his loaded gun

pointed at Mr. Lopez, Defendant Aguirre began shouting orders. Fearing that ‘he is going to shoot me’ and that his life was about to end on the side of the road, David Lopez realized his only hope was to cooperate, so he laid on the ground while Mark Aguirre held a gun to him and placed his knee on David Lopez’s back.”

More than $1 million sought

Other members of Aguirre’s team searched Lopez’s truck and, after finding it did not contain any ballots, drove it from the scene while Aguirre continued to hold Lopez at gunpoint with his knee in his back, according to the suit. At one point, Aguirre cocked his pistol, Lopez said.

During a December court appearance, Aguirre swore he is “done” conducting private investigations. He currently is out on a surety bond of $30,000 and has agreed not to work for Hotze’s organization as a condition of his release.

Lopez is seeking more than $1 million for “bodily injury, physical pain, past and future mental anguish, exemplary damages and attorney fees,” according to the suit.

Woodfill said Aguirre’s attorney has given a different version of events, alleging Lopez and Aguirre got into a “fender bender” and Lopez prompted the confrontation when he rushed at Aguirre. In any case, Woodfill said Hotze should not be held responsible for Aguirre’s actions.

“When an allegation of voter fraud would come in, he would turn it over to investigators and they would do their work in the way they thought best,” Woodfill said. “So, using the plaintiff's logic, if one were to go out and hire a contractor to do whatever the project may be, and they did something that you didn't agree with, then according to the plaintiff, you're responsible for it. I don't believe that's consistent with the law.”

‘Politically motivated’

Woodfill also said he believes the lawsuit is “politically motivated,” pointing to Lopez’s decision to sue Hotze but not Aguirre, and to hire attorneys K. Scott Brazil and Dicky Grigg, both of whom have represented the Texas Democratic Party in voting lawsuits. Woodfill noted Lopez’s lawsuit references Hotze’s numerous legal challenges against Harris County’s efforts to expand voting during the 2020 election, which is part of Hotze’s “long history of pursuing and alleging bizarre unfounded voter fraud allegations.”

Grigg said Lopez is not suing Aguirre because he already has been indicted in the separate criminal case, and because Hotze — not Aguirre — is the one funding the operation.

“He's just a puppet, and instead of going against the puppet, we're going against the puppetmaster, the one pulling the strings,” Griggs said.

He added that the lawsuit was not motivated by Hotze’s political claims or the legal actions he took against Democrats and voter expansion measures.

“This lawsuit is not about any of the claims that Dr. Hotze's making, no matter how ridiculous or unfounded they are,” Griggs said. “This is against actions that people he paid $300,000 to, the actions that these people took. And the whole purpose of the lawsuit is, fine, you can say what you want, you can hold the opinions you want. But you're responsible for your actions and your conduct.”

Last year, in a Hotze lawsuit that sought to prohibit voters from dropping off mail ballots in person before Election Day, Aguirre submitted an affidavit in which he alleged powerful Harris County Democrats had devised a scheme to submit as many as 700,000 fraudulent mail ballots, representing nearly one-third of the entire voter roll.

Aguirre in October hung up on a reporter seeking evidence of the allegations. He has yet to publicly present evidence of the alleged scheme.

Hotze long has held an active role in local Republican politics, donating to conservative political candidates and wielding influence through a group, Conservative Republicans of Texas, whose endorsement is typically sought by candidates in GOP primaries.

He filed numerous lawsuits last year against COVID restrictions and voting expansion measures, and was particularly active in fighting Houston’s 2015 anti-discrimination measure, branded by supporters as Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO, and by opponents as the Bathroom Ordinance.