Haggerty Intends To Stay At Commissioners Court Despite Chemotherapy
Last November ABC-7 broke the story that 17-year County Commissioner Dan Haggerty has bladder cancer and he was considering stepping down from his elected position.
On Monday, Haggerty told ABC-7, despite a poor prognosis, he’s in for the long haul.
It’s been an eventful past week for Haggerty. Last Thursday his attorney, Ray Gutierrez, told us his client’s initials had been removed from a federal indictment. And on Friday, a relieved Haggerty started the long road of chemotherapy.
“If I’m on a machine somewhere for life support, it’s probably time to say goodbye,” Haggerty said with a laugh.
But Haggerty, who had his prostate removed in 1999, isn’t ready to say goodbye. In fact, just three days after the first of many lengthy chemotherapy treatments for his spreading bladder cancer, the 63-year-old was back at work at Monday’s Commissioners Court meeting.
“I felt like I can handle this,” Haggerty said after the four hour meeting. “I can put up with these knot heads just as easily as the people are.”
Using his normal humorous approach, Haggerty tackled even the toughest of questions about his health, like the poor prognosis he got earlier this month from his doctor in Houston.
“She said three, maybe five years, which is just long enough to finish off this term and (tick) everybody off down here at the courthouse.”
And that’s exactly what Haggerty said he plans to do.
“I obviously got an obligation to do what I have got to do to be a commissioner,” he said. “(The chemotherapy) was starting to work on me there (during the meeting), you may have noticed, toward the end, listening to the county attorneys. If you’ve got two years to live it’s tough to imagine giving that much time to some of those issues.”
Haggerty said being removed from that indictment has given him a new look at the life he has left. He added that he’s lost his faith in the FBI, which implicated him in the indictment, and he thinks his case is reason to look back at some of those other corruption cases a little more carefully.
