A former Midtown Redevelopment Authority official was sentenced to 10 years in prison this week for stealing taxpayer money that was meant to fight displacement and support affordable housing in Houston’s Third Ward.
Todd Edwards, who managed real estate for the agency, pleaded guilty in April to theft and money laundering. His punishment could have ranged from probation to 20 years, but prosecutors and his defense attorneys agreed to a prison term instead of a sentencing hearing before Judge Lance Long.
Charges of abuse of official capacity and misapplication of fiduciary property were dismissed under the deal. Prosecutors had also capped his exposure at 20 years, though the charges could have carried up to 99.
Midtown is a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, a type of district where property tax revenue from rising values stays inside the zone instead of funding citywide spending.
The authority bought hundreds of vacant lots in Third Ward with the goal of getting affordable housing built on them. Edwards oversaw land and housing there from 2007 to 2023, and many of those lots stayed empty and overgrown while the agency spent millions on mowing.
Neighbors are the reason the case surfaced.
Ed Pettitt, vice president of the Greater Third Ward Super Neighborhood, and other residents filed records requests and complaints for years. Residents first went to the city’s Office of Inspector General in 2020, and in October 2023 the office concluded Edwards had inappropriately used his position to benefit himself and a landscaping contractor.
Midtown had already fired Edwards that May, and criminal charges followed in 2024.
Prosecutors say the money moved through three companies. Midtown paid $2.1 million between 2011 and 2020 to P.O.W.E.R. LLC, a firm Edwards formed, and prosecutors say it billed $300,000 to demolish 32 buildings that did not exist at the time.
Through Edwards, Midtown also paid $6.2 million for mowing to Cortez Landscaping, owned by Veronica Ugorji, and $768,500 to KCK Demolition and Landscaping, owned by Kenneth Jones. Edwards’ and Jones’ companies also worked as subcontractors for Cortez. Prosecutors allege Edwards and Ugorji were in a romantic relationship and that he helped her form her company and approved her invoices for payment.
Jones also pleaded guilty Monday to theft and money laundering. His deal includes six years of deferred adjudication and more than $200,000 in restitution, and his abuse of official capacity charge was dismissed.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced the charges alongside Mayor John Whitmire in June 2024 and put the alleged losses at about $8.5 million. Sarah Neyland, chief prosecutor in the DA’s public integrity division, called Monday’s outcome “a good sentence, especially for a white collar crime,” noting that Edwards was 65 and had no criminal history.
Gary Schaffer Miller, a defense attorney for Edwards, said his client has taken responsibility and wants to move forward.
Whitmire said he was glad to see Edwards held accountable and asked anyone who sees corruption or a conflict of interest in city government to report it to his office. He replaced much of the Midtown board last year, and in the fall of 2024 he pushed city council to expand an existing audit to cover all 28 of the city’s TIRZs, saying the zones “spend large amounts of money with little government oversight.”
Separately, former Houston Public Works manager Patrece Lee received the same 10-year sentence in 2025 after pleading guilty to bribery in a water contract scheme.
Pettitt was in the courtroom for the sentencing. He said he would have preferred “a harsher justice,” and that without a sentencing hearing, Edwards never heard witnesses describe the damage, including illegal dumping, squatting, lost business, and seniors priced out of the neighborhood.
Ugorji’s case is still pending.
