According to county data, Kim Ogg, the outgoing district attorney for Harris County, contributed almost $2.4 million from her office’s asset forfeiture fund this year. This was part of a spike in expenses that nearly halved her cash balance.
The district attorney also set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars for organizations associated with political allies, such as the bail bond industry, which supported her reelection campaign, and a personal connection of a senior deputy, Vivian King, even though many of Ogg’s donations went to well-known nonprofits.
The Landing asked Ogg and King to explain the influx of donations, but they did not reply. But in a prior interview with ABC13, a television news station, Ogg justified her spending.
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According to Ogg, this is just an effort by some individuals who are dissatisfied with me and my administration to distort positive news into a negative narrative. These are legitimate donations to worthy organizations that are benefiting our community. I still have the legal and practical right to do this for the time being.
Ogg’s successor now has the least amount of discretionary funds of any Harris County district attorney in at least 11 years as a result of the giveaway.
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Ogg, who will leave office Dec. 31, started 2024 with a cash balance of just over $9 million in asset forfeiture funds, data maintained by the Harris County Auditor shows. Yet by early December, the fund had dwindled to just over half that amount, a reduction driven by a flurry of donations.
In the first 11 months of 2024, Ogg donated more than twice as much from her asset forfeiture fund as she spent for that purpose in the previous seven years of her tenure combined.
Nearly all the donations came after Ogg s loss in March s Democratic primary to Sean Teare, who went on towin November s general electionand will succeed Ogg as district attorney in January. When he does, Teare will inherit less than two thirds of the sum Ogg had at her disposal when she assumed office in 2017, according to the county auditor s data.
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In an interview, Teare blasted Ogg for the expenditures, calling them childish. He said the reduced fund could complicate his efforts to assist other law enforcement agencies throughout Harris County, historically a common use of asset forfeiture resources.
If the asset forfeiture fund is at zero, I m not going to be able to help, he told the Landing in an interview. I think it is unfortunate that the outgoing district attorney would be so spiteful as to hamper the administration of justice simply to try to punish the person that beat her in an election.
Donations to political, personal allies
The district attorney s asset forfeiture fund mostly consists of property or money seized on suspicion of a connection with criminal activity. Law enforcement can seize assets under one federal statute and two state statutes. Most of Ogg s fund stems from assets seized under Chapter 59 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, whichpermits authoritiesto donate those assets to organizations that assist in law enforcement activities or provide support services like mental health care.
By early December, Ogg had made 28 donations, the county auditor s data shows. 27 came from her Chapter 59 assets.
(Donations have) got to be used for law enforcement purposes, and the organizations that we ve selected all provide some kind of crime prevention service, Ogg told ABC13.
Ogg s largest donation of $760,000 went to the Children s Assessment Center Foundation to purchase and install new audiovisual equipment used during forensic interviews of children who have been sexually abused, according to an invoice submitted by the foundation in July. Numerous other donations went to organizations that support anti-human trafficking initiatives, like $75,000 that went to the Harris County Constable Precinct 1 Foundation in November.
My understanding is that s part of the initiative from the district attorney s office (on) how human trafficking affects the victims, said Carl Shaw, an assistant chief deputy at Harris County Constable Precinct 1 and principal officer of the precinct s foundation.
In other cases, however, Ogg made sizable donations to organizations with personal or political ties to her or senior members of her staff. For example, on a single day in May, Ogg donated a total of $200,000 to two organizations founded by Houston pastor Rudy Rasmus: Bread of Life, Inc. and the Temenos Community Development Corporation. Rasmus leads St. John s United Methodist Church, where Vivian King, Ogg s chief of staff, attends services.
A spokesperson for the district attorney s office acknowledged the Landing s questions regarding King and Rasmus but did not provide a response. Similarly, neither Bread of Life, Inc. nor the Temenos Community Development Corporation responded to a request for comment.
In other cases, Ogg donated to organizations connected to a group that hascontributed to her political campaigns: Harris County s bail bond industry. In October, Ogg gave $100,000 to the nonprofit Equal Justice Now, whose principal officer is a former bondsman, according to public records.
Equal Justice Now later released an hour-long video and podcast interview in which Ogg criticizes Harris County smisdemeanor bail reform, whichslashed profitsfor local bond agencies. Ogg s donation to Equal Justice Now is at least twice as much as the nonprofit has ever reported in annual gross receipts to the Internal Revenue Service, financial records show.
We are deeply grateful for the Harris County District Attorney s Office and staff for the generous donation to support our work in Houston and nationwide, said Shakiyla Murphy, a spokesperson for Equal Justice Now, in an emailed statement. All donations are used in our efforts to make equality and justice a reality for all people.
Ogg also gave $50,000 in September to an organization founded and operated exclusively by Mario Garza, a Houston bondsman and president of the Bondsmen of Harris County Association. In an interview, Garza said he requested the donation for the organization, Take Back Our City, which supports homicide victims families in the fight against lax criminal justice policies like misdemeanor bail reform.
Garza described Take Back Our City, which has never reported financial returns to the Internal Revenue Service, as kind of dormant since its founding in 2023. He said the district attorney s donation would fund organization t-shirts and transportation to and from Austin for victims families who wish to testify before the Texas state legislature.
What we plan to really do is in the coming year, Garza said. We plan to organize some marches and things like that in front of the courthouse.
Yet more donations went to projects with little relation to law enforcement in Harris County, including ahashtag campaignsupporting Afghan prosecutors under threat from the Taliban.
For his part, Teare condemned Ogg s expenditures.
Money that you seize from criminal enterprises should be turned around and used to make people safer, not (to) get on a podcast and give money to organizations that no one s ever heard of in a really obvious, spiteful attempt to hurt law enforcement in this community, Teare said.
Multiple financial shortfalls
The district attorney s diminished asset forfeiture fund will not be the only financial shortfall Teare inherits when he takes office in January.
The agency received only a nominal increase in funding for the 2025 budget cycle after King, who also serves as Ogg s chief financial officer,admitted she had not reada county directive to include options to reduce spending in the district attorney s proposed budget.
That lapse resulted in the submission of an ineligible budget proposal and an automatic 5 percent budget cut of $6 million. Harris County Commissioners Court will restore a prorated sum of $4.5 million to the district attorney s office after Teare takes over in January; however, the oversight means the office saw a net budget increase of just $16,000 in the current fiscal year compared to 2024.
In a September interview with the Landing, King said her office did not include potential cuts in its budget proposal because she did not want to undermine the poor prosecutors who work night and day for the people of Harris County for the cause and not for the money.
At the same time, however, Teare expressed frustration with the oversight and questioned Ogg s motives.
I don t know whether it was pure oversight and lack of management that got us to this point, or if it was an intentional instruction from the DA not to submit (an eligible budget) for political reasons, Teare said. I think they should have to answer for this.
Editor s note: Ogg donated $10,000 of asset forfeiture funds in August to the Biz Mackey Family Foundation, an organization led by Ray Mackey. Ray Mackey is the father of Houston Landing Director of Finance Konner Mackey.
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Outgoing DA Kim Ogg donates forfeiture funds to respected charities, plus political allies
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