7/31/2019 Lykos Demands Anderson Apologize Pay Back Taxpayers

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FOR

IMMEDIATE

RELEASEThursday

May 24th

, 2012

CONTACT

Jeff Yates

832-545-7644media@

patlykos.com

Pol. Ad Pd. For by Pat Lykos for Harris County District Attorney | 5151 San Felipe, Ste. 1950, Houston, TX 77056

Lykos Demands Anderson Accept Responsibility & Compensate

Taxpayers for Unauthorized Use of Courtroom in Campaign Ads

A Public Information Act requestmade to Harris Countys Facilities & Property Management Department and approvedby the County Attorneys Officehas uncovered smoking-gun evidence of Mike Andersons improper and unauthorized

use of a taxpayer-funded county courtroom for the filming of several partisan, political campaign commercials.

Screenshot from Mike Anderson ads 262nd

Courtroom, Harris Co. Criminal Justice Center

Security sign-in logs for Sunday, April 22, 2012, reveal the arrival of 20 individuals between 1:46 pm and 2:00 pm, all

indicating their destination as the 262nd District Courtroom on the 15th floor of the Criminal Justice Center. Among the

names are members of a local video-production company, Andersons family, and 15 other people needed as mock

jurors in the adsincluding five names that are listed on Andersons website as endorsing his campaign.

Amazingly,Mike Andersons name itself does not appear on the list, leaving unanswered the mystery of how exactly hewas able to enter the building, and who (if anyone) gave him permission to use and facilitated his access to the 262

nd.

What is known is that permission did not come from Facilities & Property Management, representatives of which confirm

that private use of public space in a county-owned facility does require a written request at least 10 days in advance; does

require prior authorization from FPM; does require the signing of an indemnity-waiver agreement; and does requirepayment of several hundred dollars in utility, janitorial and security fees.

Most critically, FPM officials confirm that Mike Anderson didnt request or receive permission, didnt agree to an

indemnity waiver, and didnt pay the hundreds of dollars in fees he was required to.

Said District Attorney Pat Lykos

The people of Harris County hired me to do a job, and Ive kept my promisesthe courthouse is no longer a frat

house, and were building an independent crime lab you can trust. My opponent says hes running to go back to

the good old days, and his arrogant, unauthorized use of a taxpayer-funded courtroom to film partisan

political campaign commercials is a clear example of what he meansback to the days when a courthouse

clique controlled the DAs office and the bench.

Mike Anderson needs to understand that the courthouse doesnt belong to him, it belongs to the people. Im

calling on Mike Anderson to do the honorable and decent thingpay back taxpayers the money you owe them

and apologize to every citizen of Harris County for exploiting our courtrooms for you political ambitions.