The mayor of Arcola, a small city in Fort Bend County, Texas, has been arrested and booked into the county jail on a string of felony charges. According to court records, Fred Burton was taken into custody on Wednesday and now faces five felony counts tied to allegations of election fraud and the misuse of his public office. The case has drawn attention in the tight-knit community, where Burton has been a fixture of local government for years and where the arrest of a sitting mayor is a rare and jarring event.
The charges are wide-ranging. Court records show Burton has been indicted on two counts of illegal voting, one count of misuse of official information, one count of tampering with a government record and one count of fraudulent securing of document execution. Together, the five felony counts paint a picture of alleged wrongdoing that prosecutors say touches both the electoral process in Arcola and the day-to-day administration of the city's affairs.
At the center of the case is the question of how votes were cast in local elections. According to prosecutors, the indictments allege that Burton attempted to help people vote in Arcola elections at a time when those individuals were not eligible to cast ballots. The illegal voting counts form the core of the accusations and speak directly to the integrity of the ballot in a city where, residents note, small numbers of votes can decide who holds power.
The remaining counts focus on Burton's conduct as an official. Prosecutors accuse him of using non-public information that he was able to obtain as mayor to benefit another person in connection with a city contract. That accusation underpins the misuse of official information charge and suggests, in the state's telling, that the powers of the office were turned toward private advantage rather than the public interest.
A separate indictment centers on the city's finances and paperwork. Burton is accused of presenting or using fake government records related to an estimate for the Arcola food court project, a municipal undertaking that has now become entangled in the criminal case. A further charge alleges that he caused members of the city council to sign documents affecting the city's financial interests without their consent, deepening the questions around how decisions were being made at city hall.
The case also has a family dimension. One of the current members of the Arcola City Council, who holds an at-large seat, is Burton's daughter, a detail that underscores how closely woven the Burton name has become with the city's politics. Investigators have indicated that the allegations against the mayor stretch back several years, rather than stemming from a single recent incident, and the inquiry has moved through the courts to the point of formal indictment and arrest.
Burton's path through local office has been a long one. He was first elected mayor in 2018, then re-elected in 2020 and again in 2022, before losing his re-election bid in 2024. He returned to public office the following year, winning an at-large seat on the city council in 2025, and then reclaimed the mayor's chair after winning the most recent election in May 2026. Longtime residents describe a history of disputes and friction in the small city's government, and say the arrest has left the community shaken as it waits to see how the charges play out.