State Representative Runs For Re-Election From The Slammer

Patch
State Rep. Ron Reynolds is running for re-election while he is serving a year-long sentence for ambulance chasing, and he'll still win.

MISSOURI CITY, TX — There’s good news and there’s bad news for State Representative Ron Reynolds. The good news is that he is running unopposed and is a lock to win re-election to his seat on the state legislature.

The bad news is that he will be celebrating from the Montgomery County Jail. Since Sept. 7, Reynolds, 45, has been an inmate at the jail where he is serving a year-long sentence for the misdemeanor crime of barratry, a fancy legal term for ambulance chasing.

Reynolds, a personal injury attorney, was convicted of five counts of barratry by a Montgomery County jury in November 2015 after the evidence showed he’d worked with convicted felon Robert Valdez to obtain contracts for his law firm.
A jury found that Reynolds paid Valdez to do the leg work of getting the police accident reports and cold calling the drivers who weren’t at fault to file personal injury lawsuits.

Reynolds was sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. Reynolds appealed, but a judge upheld the ruling and Reynolds was ordered to jail. Reynolds surrendered to authorities and began serving his setence on Sept. 7, 2018.

Reynolds, a Missouri City Democrat and a practicing attorney, became the first African American elected to his Fort Bend County District since Reconstruction when he won his seat in 2011.

Despite his conviction, Reynolds has the support of many of his fellow Texas Democrats including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who is also a former state law maker, and Sentate hopeful Beto O’Rourke.

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Image: MCSO

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