This is basically a deferred dismissal of the charges.
The former chief of staff for County Judge Lina Hidalgo accepted a pre-trial intervention deal Thursday on one charge linked to a controversial COVID-19 contract, ending a years-long political saga that pitted Democratic leaders against each other.
The county worker, Alex Triantaphyllis, charged in 2022 with misuse of official information and tampering with records, was accused alongside two other county aides who handled the vaccine outreach contract given to Elevate Strategies, a bidder with Democratic political ties.
Triantaphyllis appeared in court alongside his wife as prosecutors with Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office dismissed the misuse of official information charge and downgraded the tampering offense to a misdemeanor as part of their agreement.
The former aide, now in the Office of County Administration as a planning and projects director, expressed gratitude to the prosecutors for taking a “more objective look” at his case.
“For more than half my time in public service, my colleagues and I have had to navigate a legal system that felt like it was a stranger to justice,” Triantaphyllis said in a statement. “Despite these challenges, I’ve gone to work every day and remained focused on continuing to make Harris County government work better for everyone.”
Unlike his former colleagues, whose cases were dismissed outright, Triantaphyllis is ordered to undergo 10 hours of community service as part of the intervention agreement. He, however, does not have to agree to wrongdoing as part of the deal, one of his lawyers, Dan Cogdell, said.
The remaining charge will be dismissed after six months if completed, his attorney said.
“There’s no acceptance of responsibilities; there’s no admission of guilt; there’s no restitution; there’s no fine,” Cogdell said.
See here for the previous update. Even to call this a slap on the wrist is to overstate it – it’s maybe a touch from a feather. After six months and less than a weekend of community service, the end result of this almost three-year case is that all charges against all three defendants will have been dismissed. You can still argue that there was no political motivation in bringing these charges if you really want to, but this is an L big enough to be visible from space. And it took three weeks to get from handing the prosecution off to the AG’s office to here. Good Lord.
By the way, if the name Dan Cogdell sounds familiar, it’s because he was Ken Paxton’s attorney in the state securities fraud case. And he said the same thing about his client even though he got more community service and had to pay restitution. He’s clearly the guy to call if you get caught up in this kind of case. Houston Public Media, which has a few choice quotes from Judge Hidalgo about former DA Kim Ogg, has more.