Judge scolds attorneys for 2 Hidalgo staffers
The judge overseeing the case involving three Harris County aides facing criminal charges linked to a controversial COVID-19 vaccine contract admonished attorneys for two of them on Thursday, saying they didn’t provide prosecutors with written job descriptions as ordered, information that will be used to determine the conditions of their bond.
District Judge Hazel Jones at a hearing verbally rebuked attorneys for Alex Triantaphyllis and Wallis Nader for not following her previous instruction given on May 13.
“I told you what to do,” Jones told Brett Podolsky, Marla Thompson Poirot and David Adler. “I don’t know why you aren’t doing it.”
Triantaphyllis and Wallis, along with Aaron Dunn, are accused of steering the $11 million contract, which has since been canceled, to Elevate Strategies, operated by a politically connected vendor.
Jones ordered the defense to “keep it simple” and provide the prosecution with a written job descriptions for the two staffers within the next week to finish hashing out the details for their bond conditions.
Triantaphyllis and Nader still work for County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Thursday’s hearing comes just over a month after Jones instructed Assistant District Attorney Michael Levine and the defense attorneys representing the trio to more narrowly define the bond conditions related to the defendants’ jobs with the county.
The sides have been at odds over those conditions.
All three have been charged with felony misuse of official information and tampering with records, according to court records.
Prior to the reprimand, the judge accepted the agreed upon conditions for Dunn — which were worked out between his defense attorney and Levine.
Dunn — who now works for the Harris County Flood Control District — was ordered to not contact Triantaphyllis and Nader about the case, participate in the procurement process of county contracts or have access to documents or electronic files related to the case or within the Criminal Justice Information Services data, according to the agreed motion for bond conditions.
He will be allowed to participate in drafting or revising “scopes of future procurement efforts” on condition that his work doesn’t include any type of contact with people who bid or may be likely to bid on contracts in the future, according to court records.
Both Triantaphyllis and Nader’s lawyers told Jones they agreed with Levine on the first and fourth bond conditions but were not in agreement with the second and third — specifically, the role of the duo’s job within the scope of their participation in the procurement process for county contracts.
The defense attorneys for Triantaphyllis and Nader declined to comment.
All three defendants are expected back in court on July 18, court records show.
After their indictments were announced in April, Hidalgo defended the three staffers.
“I have not seen anything to suggest that my staff did anything but work tirelessly for the people of Harris County,” she said in her April 13 statement.
In May, she called into question the timing of the indictments as being politically motivated.