(September 29, 2006)—A team of investigators from the Texas Attorney General’s Office was searching through records in the Falls County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office Friday as part of an ongoing investigation of alleged irregularities in the Falls County Tax Appraisal District.

State District Court Judge Robert Stem confirmed he issued the search warrant Thursday, but declined to provide additional details.

The state investigators said Friday they could not comment, but a report from the courthouse indicated they had filled about half a dozen boxes with records from the office.

The affidavit for the search warrant submitted to Stem by Sgt. Henry Guevara, a Texas Attorney General’s Office investigator, alleges that Falls County Tax Assessor-Collector Kate Vande Veegaete “committed the offense of Tampering with a Governmental Record by making a false entry in a government record.”

“Back dating payments made to the Falls County Tax Assessor’s Office allowed taxpayers to avoid paying interest and penalties that had accrued,” the affidavit said.

“These alterations shortchanged the taxing jurisdictions said office is charged with collecting property taxes for.”

“Affiant also believes that TAC Vande Veegaete committed the offense of Misapplication of Fiduciary Property by faling to collect the interest and penalties due from taxpayers on January 31 of each year,” the affidavit says.

Click Here To Read The Warrant And Affidavit

The four investigators arrived at about 8:30 a.m. Friday.

In a letter dated Aug. 22, Falls County Judge Tom Sehon formally asked Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, to seek the state probe of the alleged irregularities.

Sehon requested Averitt to “ask the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Comptroller of Public Accounts to intervene in an ongoing investigation in Falls County.”

“The investigation concerns irregularities within the Falls County Appraisal District Tax Office and possibly elsewhere,” Sehon wrote.

“These agencies are welcome to investigate any and all Falls County offices, and individuals, or anyone else deemed essential to the investigation, and will have my full cooperation,” Sehon wrote.

The search Friday comes one month to the day after former Falls County Appraisal District employee Candace Grams, 30, of Marlin was arrested on new charges stemming from the alleged irregularities in the office.

She was named in indictments handed up on Aug. 25 charging 19 counts of tampering with government records and two counts of fabricating physical evidence.

She was freed on bonds totaling $31,500.

At the time of her arrest, Grams was free on $50,000 bond, which was set after she was indicted in July for theft by a public servant.

The indictment stemmed from an investigation that determined signatures had been forged on appraisal district checks.

The latest indictments stem from allegations that appraisal values were changed on several properties and that false documents were filed.

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