In Harris County, search warrants fly in the bid-rigging saga engulfing Judge Lina Hidalgo's office, with a former staffer fighting back against what he claims is an unjust probe into a now-infamous $11 million COVID-19 vaccine outreach contract. Alex Triantaphyllis, an ex-aide to Hidalgo, stands accused along with two others of tampering and misuse of official information, ABC13 reported. Personal phone communications are the latest battleground as new warrants command AT&T and WhatsApp to cough up the records, but Triantaphyllis's lawyers argue their client has already come clean with the information.
Triantaphyllis’s legal team has thrown a counterpunch to block these new warrants, claiming investigators from the District Attorney's office and those Rangers with badges may have had their sights misaligned when scoring these warrants, according to the Houston Chronicle. They demand a hearing to vet the truth and to cut short the warrants' reach, which they describe as broad and alarmingly invasive, potentially snaring unrelated information from Triantaphyllis's personal channels.
"If Mr. Triantaphyllis is so confident he has turned over all the required material, why is he hoping to suppress the search warrants?" Joe Stinebaker fired back, as per the Houston Chronicle's statement. "We, however, look forward to trying it in the proper venue – a courtroom". This courtroom drama has its roots in 2021, when the Harris County Commissioners Court handed the hefty contract to Elevate Strategies on a proverbial silver platter, a decision now disregarded for impropriety.
The defense paints Judge Hidalgo as disconnected from the questionable dealings, splashed with allegations of early sneak peeks given to Elevate Strategies founder Felicity Pereyra. Pereyra, for her part, tossed over messages that Hidalgo's aides held back, triggering Texas Ranger Daron Parker to sleuth out possible felony-grade tampering, the Chronicle reports. In their Monday motion, Triantaphyllis's attorneys blasted those claims, highlighting a gaping absence of cooperation from the DA's office to reconcile concerns over the message traffic. They also pointed fingers at DA Kim Ogg, suggesting her hand might stir the pot of this investigation.
"It is difficult to believe that, before accusing a county employee of a felony offense on the basis of unproduced messages, the affiant did not double-check to see if the messages had in fact been produced," Triantaphyllis's legal team articulated in the motion obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
