Defense In Jones, Sanchez Corruption Trial Begins

A little after 2 p.m. Tuesday, the prosecution rested in the federal corruption trial of attorney and former County Judge Luther Jones and former District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez.

The pair are accused of rigging a bid for a county contract in 2004, which was never awarded.

The defense began presenting its case at 3 p.m., with three witnesses taking the stand in less than one hour.

First, attorneys called Assistant County Attorney Lee Shapleigh and asked one question of her: Did Sanchez and his assistant Fernando Parra receive any training on how to prepare Requests For Proposals? Those are the documents that describe a vendor’s bids. Her answer, “No.”

A former county purchasing department clerk was asked to describe the bidding process and the contact vendors have with elected officials or department heads before contracts are awarded.

The third witness, attorney and former district judge William Reed Leverton, spoke about a Las Vegas conference attended by Sanchez, which prosecutors maintain Sanchez secured from a company seeking a contract to digitize records for the district clerk’s office. Leverton testified Sanchez was conducting county business during the conference.

Earlier Tuesday, Jones’ financial records took center stage.

Detailed testimony involved his personal financial journal as the government continued to try and prove to the jury that Jones was paying off Sanchez and others with expensive lunches, campaign contributions and trips.

An FBI forensic accountant took the stand for the second consecutive day, providing line by line cross-referencing between Jones’ personal ledger and credit card accounts, as well as Sanchez’ personal bank accounts.

All of it intended to show a pattern of payments and expenses that started with Jones and led to Sanchez, Sanchez’ former office manager Parra, and former County Commissioner Betti Flores.

According to the financial records and FBI testimony, between February 2003 to December 2004, Sanchez allegedly received lunches, payment, campaign contributions and trips worth $6,761.68 from Jones. Meanwhile, Parra received $5,133.12 and Flores $2,081.57.

The defense argued, however, that these totals were not accurate or applicable because the request for the contract Jones and Sanchez are accused of rigging was terminated by Commissioners Court in June 2004, well before many of these payments occurred.

Jurors also heard from an FBI special agent about emails to and from Jones that suggested a scheme was going on.

An email to law partner Martie Jobe stated, “Martie, we probably don’t need to do anything for (Parra) or (Sanchez) for them to help us. (Parra) has already given us the specs and (Sanchez) has already given us the documents, but I think it would be a good idea to pay for their airfare and hotel.”

The e-mail, prosecutors said, referred to a trip to an Altep seminar in Las Vegas, the company for which Jones and Sanchez are accused of rigging the contract.

At one point during a recess, ABC-7’s Darren Hunt asked Sanchez how he was holding up. He nodded and said, “I knew I was gonna get beat up.”