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HUNTSVILLE — Shuffling in his shackles to the front of a Walker County courtroom, the co-owner of Colony Ridge Inc. pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to two drunken driving charges.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, William “Trey” Harris is required to serve 45 days in the county jail minus time served, pay about $12,000 in court fees and is barred from getting behind the wheel of a car until late November. County Court at Law Judge Tracy Sorensen approved the plea deal.
What to know
- William “Trey” Harris’ jail sentence comes at a time when the company he owns with his brother, John, is facing legal scrutiny.
- Harris owns at least a 30 percent stake in Colony Ridge, which is being sued by the Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
- The plea agreement came nearly two weeks after Harris’ bond was revoked, indicating he may have violated the conditions of his bail.
Harris has been in jail since May 17, court records show. His attorney, Bryan Cantrell, said Harris had been on the way to turn himself in that afternoon when he ran into some of his “law enforcement buddies” who gave him a ride to the county jail.
“He just wanted to get this resolved,” said Cantrell.
Court records show Harris’ bond was revoked one day before his arrest, meaning he could have failed to appear for a court appearance or violated the terms of his release. Cantrell did not respond to follow-up questions about the circumstances of Harris’ arrest, his third in Walker County in the past six months.
An arrest report from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office contradicts Cantrell's version of events.
Shortly before 1 p.m. on May 17, Officer Jeffrey French received a call that Harris, “a wanted subject,” was sitting inside Los Pericos Mexican Restaurant in Huntsville.
“I was advised where Harris was in the restaurant and upon approaching him, he stood up and began to walk towards me,” he wrote in his report.
The officer called to Harris, who confirmed his identity and then was put in handcuffs and taken to jail.
Harris was first arrested in November 2023, when he was charged with a Class A misdemeanor DWI, Texas’ most serious type of misdemeanor, after he recorded a blood alcohol content that was twice the legal limit. The Colony Ridge developer was later arrested for a second time in February on another DWI misdemeanor charge.
Dana Wright, assistant district attorney at the Walker County District Attorney’s office, declined to comment.
Colony Ridge faces legal trouble
Harris’ conviction comes at a time when state and federal officials are closely scrutinizing the company that Harris and his brother, John Harris, own.
Colony Ridge Inc. and its subsidiaries are behind a massive, decade-old development in unincorporated Liberty County about 40 miles northeast of Houston. Tens of thousands of people, many of them Latinos, have moved there over the past decade, attracted by the prospect of affordable land.
In December 2023, the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit against Colony Ridge Inc., accusing the company of targeting Latino land buyers with predatory loans. Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a similar suit against the company in March.
Federal and state prosecutors argue Colony Ridge sets up its residents to fail by offering loans at steep interest rates it knows customers are likely to default on. Properties are then bought back at auction and sold again, officials say.
A Abdelraoufsinno investigation found the developer reacquired 45 percent of the 35,000-plus properties it had sold since 2012.
Harris owns at least a 30 percent interest in Colony Ridge Inc., according to public records. John Harris, president of the company, said in a statement to the Landing that his brother’s drunken driving conviction is a private matter.
“My brother Trey is working through this as best he can. He is taking the proper steps of rehabilitation and we as a family are supportive in his efforts,” he wrote. “He has stepped away from his duties at Colony Ridge and has not been actively engaged in the company for over a year.”
Creating opportunity or reverse redlining?
In an October 2023 interview, Trey Harris told the Landing “the vast majority of what you have heard (about Colony Ridge) is incorrect or false information.”
abdelraoufsinno’s investigation found the developers offer 12.9 percent interest rate mortgages to people in search of land they can build on. Customers are not required to provide proof of income to obtain a loan, however. All they need is $500 for a down payment.
Forgoing traditional requirements for obtaining loans allows Colony Ridge to offer the most opportunity to the most people, John Harris has previously argued. But federal prosecutors and legal experts contend Colony Ridge is engaging in a practice called reverse redlining: offering credit to historically disadvantaged people under less-favorable terms.
The massive influx of people to an unincorporated area of Liberty County just east of Plum Grove over the past decade has stretched county resources thin, with few sheriff’s deputies patrolling Colony Ridge at any given time.
Following xenophobic reports from far-right publications, some of Texas’ top Republican elected officials last year described the area as riddled with crime, a magnet for illegal immigration and a potential hotbed for Mexican drug cartels. However, local law enforcement officials offer a more nuanced view of crime in the development. They said while violent crime occurs in Colony Ridge and cartels do operate there, they are no more prevalent than any other parts of Houston and Texas.
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