KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Former Kaufman County Republican Chairman Coby Blake Pritchett, the youngest to serve in its role, has been indicted by a Kaufman County Grand Jury for allegedly stealing party funds.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Former Kaufman County Republican Chairman Coby Blake Pritchett, the youngest to serve in its role, has been indicted by a Kaufman County Grand Jury for allegedly stealing party funds.
On April 29, 2024, Pritchett was arrested by the Crandall Police Department for expired registration and was booked into the Kaufman County Jail on a warrant from the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office for theft of property between $30,000 and $150,000.
Court records obtained by inForney.com today indicate 26-year-old Pritchett, of Combine, Texas, had been indicted by a Kaufman County Grand Jury on April 19, 2024, on a charge of theft between $2,500 and $30,000 by a public servant, a third-degree felony.
The indictment alleges Pritchett, between the dates of November 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022, "pursuant to one scheme and continuing course of conduct, intentionally and knowingly, unlawfully appropriate, by acquiring or otherwise exercising control over, property, namely United States currency, cash, and bank accounts funds, the aggregate value of which was $2,500 or more but less than $30,000, from the Kaufman County Republican Party, the owner thereof, which was then and there a nonprofit corporation, without the effective consent of the owner, namely by deception, and with intent to deprive the owner of the property, and the defendant was a public servant, namely the Kaufman County Republican Party Chairman, and such property appropriated by the defendant had therefore come into his custody, possession, or control by virtue of his status as such a public servant."
Pritchett was sworn in as the county chairman in September 2021 after former Chairman Jimmy Weaver, citing health concerns, resigned from the post. Pritchett had formerly served as the party's secretary.
He resigned in August 2022 after facing the allegations of theft.
A procedural announcement in Pritchett's case is scheduled for May 29, 2024, before 422nd District Court Judge Shelton Gibbs.