Haggerty’s Attorney Says His Client Never Took NCAA Tickets

The attorney for County Commissioner Dan Haggerty says he can prove his client did not take a bribe to steer a county contract to a friend’s company.

Haggerty has not been charged in the public corruption scandal, but he’s referenced in the indictment filed against former County Judge Anthony Cobos.

Haggerty is accused of accepting benefits worth more than $10,000 but Gutierrez tells ABC-7 it never happened, and he wants his client removed from the indictment.

“The government has had over four years to investigate this and to allege this,” said Haggerty’s lawyer Ray Gutierrez. “Well, they have wrongfully accused Dan Haggerty in that.”

Haggerty’s initials appear in an indictment involving Cobos, alleging Haggerty took NCAA Regional Finals tickets from a company vying for a county contract to those basketball games in San Antonio on March 22, 2007.

“We went back and researched information where was Dan Haggerty during the alleged March 22, 2007,” Gutierrez said.

He said he has evidence that Haggerty was in Rome that week, attending his nephew’s wedding. He showed ABC-7 pictures of Haggerty that he says were taken in Rome, a flight itinerary, Haggerty’s passport and a copy of his schedule.

“He was supposed to have come back on March 21, but there was a delay,” Gutierrez said. “He ended up spending another day and didn’t return to the U.S. until March 22. He didn’t receive (the tickets), he didn’t go, nothing to do with the NCAA Tournament on the March 2007 year, period.”

And as for those “benefits”, allegedly worth more than $10,000, Gutierrez said: “They’re alleging that in order to get that box seat it’s $10,000. So never happened.”

Gutierrez said his client intends to prove that to U.S. Attorneys.

“After 17 years as a county commissioner his reputation means everything to him,” he said. “We hope that would be enough to clear him off this entire indictment.”

ABC-7 also asked Gutierrez about all the other allegations in the indictment mentioning Haggerty, including his vote on the contract and whether he arranged a meeting between Cobos and the company. Gutierrez said he’s working to get further proof to substantiate Haggerty’s innocence, and will reveal it later.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office would only tell ABC-7 that “the indictment speaks for itself.”