Ogg likely out before fraught case sees trial
By the time an indicted trio of former Lina Hidalgo staffers goes to trial, District Attorney Kim Ogg could be out of office and the politically fraught case left to her successor.
The prosecution, passed last month to state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, could go before Harris County jurors as early as November, though state District Court Judge Hazel Jones conceded Monday that next year is more likely.
“Sounds like a next year trial,” Jones said.
The fate of the case would then sit with Ogg’s replacement — either Democratic candidate Sean Teare, who pledged to recuse Harris County, or his Republican opponent Dan Simons, both former prosecutors. Simons stood by Ogg’s decision to bring in the attorney general’s office.
The staffers are accused of handing Elevate Strategies owner Felicity Pereyra early access to a contract for COVID-19 vaccine outreach and then accepting her $11 million bid. The county judge contends none of her staffers did anything wrong.
Ogg, who lost her third reelection bid, recently passed the April 2022 indictments against Alex Triantaphyllis, Aaron Dunn and Wallis Nader to Paxton’s prosecutors last month, arguing that Teare, if he wins, could not be trusted with their prosecutions.
Ogg’s decision to not recuse her office allows the next district attorney to remain involved.
The new prosecutors were among a legion of lawyers who waited nearly a hour to address the case with Jones in the 174th District Court after docket call. A member of Ogg’s public corruption division joined them and chimed in during the proceedings, indicating that the district attorney’s office still has a stake in the case.
In Ogg’s words, she allowed Paxton’s office to “assume jurisdiction” in the cases, while the attorney general’s office described their role as assisting.
Britni Cooper, a former Harris County and federal prosecutor who recently joined Paxton’s criminal prosecutions division, asked for more time to review several terabytes of evidence.
Derek Hollingsworth, Dunn’s lawyer, agreed there are a lot of records to comb through, but some of them have nothing to do with his client.
“I’ve been complaining about that for a while,” Hollingsworth said while leaving the courtroom. “We’re just ready to have somebody finally realize that the evidence and the charges against Dunn are ridiculous and to let them go.”
The new prosecutors could not be reached for comment after court.
The defense teams, meanwhile, asked the judge to sign orders releasing transcripts from secret grand jury proceedings that led to felony charges of misuse of official information and tampering with government documents against the three county workers.
Attorneys for Triantaphyllis and Nader have asked to disqualify Ogg’s office from the case, contending that Ogg’s “months-long, highly public feud” with Hidalgo amounted to a conflict of interest — an argument Ogg’s office called a “meritless claim.”
The motion, filed in 2022, has not been addressed in court.
Both parties may return to court in August to address additional issues in the case or hold off until November to work out a trial date.
Judge Jones urged the lawyers to be mindful of her time.
“I don’t really want you here unless there’s something for me to do,” Jones said.