Charges Upgraded for Former Harris County Public Health Chief in Schemes Worth $40 Million
Harris County Public Health’s former executive director was charged Monday with two first-degree felonies and a state jail felony for her role in a scheme to illegally steer approximately $40 million in taxpayer money to two different companies, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.
“People hate corruption because any misuse of tax dollars is an affront to our entire community,” Ogg said. “Now that more evidence of corruption has come to light in this case, more charges have been filed.”
Barbie Robinson, the former executive director of Harris County Public Health, was charged with two first-degree felonies of fraudulent securing of document execution of $300,000 or more (Texas Penal Code Section 32.46).
If convicted of either first-degree felony, Robinson could face a punishment up to 99 years or life in prison.
She was also charged with tampering with a governmental record, a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years. The most recent charges are in addition to a third-degree felony of misuse of official information filed last month in one of the bid-rigging schemes.
Robinson was hired by Harris County in 2021 from her job in Sonoma County, California, where she helped create a social-safety-net program to help integrate county services, including mental health, medical and housing. That program used specially designed software to assist officials with helping residents.
That social program was meant to be brought to Harris County, which means any software vendor could bid on the project under Texas law. However, Robinson worked with IBM even before the bidding process began to ensure it had advantages not available to any other vendors.
She was also part of the scoring committee that awarded the contract to IBM. Other vendors turned in bids for the same contract for substantially less money, including one for only $2 million, instead of more than $30 million.
After being hired in Harris County, Robinson was able use COVID-19 recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan to pay IBM.
She also helped to award an $8 million contract to a one-person California firm known as DEMA (Disaster Emergency Medical Assistance) Consulting & Management to assist with the county’s program known as Holistic Assistance Response Teams (HART).
In that case, the owner of DEMA offered Robinson a job to do legal work in California and offered her husband a consulting job.
Her employment at Harris County Public Health was terminated earlier this year, on Aug. 30.
Monday’s announcement of new charges comes more than a month after the first charge was filed against Robinson on Nov. 15 for the third-degree felony offense of misuse of official information for her role in the IBM scheme. These ongoing investigations demonstrate the Harris County District Attorney’s Office’s unwavering commitment to upholding justice and the rule of law.
Now that the investigation has revealed the extent of Robinson’s misdeeds during the procurement process, more significant charges have been filed.
The charges were filed by the Public Corruption Division of the DA’s Office in conjunction with the Texas Rangers.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Eber, who is assigned to the Public Corruption Division, is prosecuting Robinson.
“This is a case where a public official took advantage of her authority to play favorites,” Eber said. “The procurement process is governed by Texas state law so that it is fair to all parties, including the taxpayers. This is not some obscure local rule—it’s the law.”
The DA’s Office has filed charges in several public corruption investigations during Ogg’s administration, including:
Harris County Tax Office
Diana Flores-Cibiran, a Harris County Tax Office employee, received tens of thousands of dollars from auto-title companies for providing fraudulent paperwork to the business as part of a tax-avoidance scheme. Flores-Cibrian is accused of funneling bribe money to other tax office employees, Michelle Martinez and Cindy Gonzalez.
Texas Education Agency Cheating Scandal
Five people are charged in a teacher-certification cheating ring that led to illegally certified teachers working in Texas schools.
Midtown Redevelopment Authority
Todd Edwards, a former Midtown Redevelopment Authority official, and two vendors are facing felony corruption charges, accused of misusing some $8.5 million in public funds meant to build affordable housing in Third Ward. Edwards, the agency’s former real estate manager, is facing four first-degree felony charges: theft, abuse of official capacity, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property.
Water Department Fraud
Patrece Lee, a former city employee, and six others are accused of stealing millions of taxpayer dollars. Lee used her position as head of the Houston Water Department to direct city water contracts to her family and friends without proper bidding or background checks.
Elevate Strategies
Three former staffers at the Harris County Judge’s Office are accused of steering a COVID-19 contract to a preferred firm. Those cases have been forwarded to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for prosecution.
Voter Fraud
Conservative activist Steven Hotze and a private investigator named Mark Aguirre are facing several felonies after Aguirre followed and attacked an air-conditioning repairman, wrongfully believing that he had thousands of fraudulent election ballots in his vehicle.