A Travis Co. grand jury has indicted Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin) on two misdemeanor counts of abuse of official capacity and at least one 13 felony counts of tampering with public records.

Rep. Dawnna Dukes

Rep. Dawnna Dukes

In a Facebook post, Dukes said she is “disappointed but I expected that if I was sworn into office in January 10th that this indictment would follow. All I can say today is that I will be entering a plea of Not Guilty” [sic].

Dukes announced in September that she would resign when earlier this month but instead changed her mind and took the oath of office. Her re-election in November in a heavily Democratic district was never in doubt (She won with 70% of the vote.), but a field of potential primary challengers has already emerged, and at least two are actively campaigning.

Former Austin council member Sheryl Cole reported $60K in contributions, and Austin attorney Chito Vela reported $24K in contributions, in campaign finance reports filed this week. Ana Cortez, Gabe Nila and Nnamdi Orakwue also filed campaign finance reports for the race.