Email Shows Ogg Chief Using County Resources To Aid Private Org Facing Audit

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is responsible for prosecuting the kind of financial crimes that county audits tend to uncover. That’s why it’s odd that Vivian King, Chief of Staff to District Attorney Kim Ogg, used her government email to provide cheerleading and guidance to an organization responding to a request from the Harris County auditor. 

“You did a great job putting the audit book together,” Ms. King wrote to Stuart Hudson, an employee at Crime Stoppers of Houston, according to an email obtained by Houston Watch. 

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“Please find my draft response letter. Feel free to make any changes you feel appropriate.” 

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“After you all decide who will sign the letter, I suggest you hand deliver it to [County Auditor] Michael Post and have his receptionist sign for it. I feel like this complies with their request.  Good Luck with this project.”  

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As the Houston Chronicle reported, “auditors attempted to review all Harris County monies donated to the non-profit between 2012 and 2022 — more than $7.2 million in county funds, taxpayer dollars and county-subsidized services — how it was spent, and if the nonprofit complied with contractual obligations and state and federal laws.” Interestingly, despite Ms. King labelelling the audit response as “a good job”, according to the Houston Chronicle, “Harris County auditors say Crime Stoppers stonewalled the investigation into its finances.” Or, perhaps this is exactly what Vivian King meant. 

What the Hell is going on here?

According to the Crime Stoppers website, Vivian King is a board member at the non-profit organization. Instead of stepping-down or at least exercising enough common sense to not touch this audit mess with a ten foot pole, Ms. King decided it was best to use her District Attorney’s Office email, fire off professional advice to a private organization at noon on a Friday (instead of, say, prosecuting violent crime), and adorn the missive with her official government signature block and insignia.

This isn’t the first time the entangled relationship between leadership at the HCDAO and Crime Stoppers has drawn scrutiny. Media, including the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, and even Houston Watch, have reported on allegations of collusion on partisan political activity, targeting specific elected judges, legislative lobbying, birthing and feeding a propaganda campaign designed to stoke fear and division over a federal court consent decree, and emailing over the potential resolution of an evading-the-police charge that a Crime Stoppers board member’s babysitter caught. All totally normal behavior from a District Attorney’s Office and a crime victim advocacy organization.