Federal jury to hear John Wiley Price bribery allegations in Austin trial Kevin Krause
Helena Tantillo
After years of investigation, a federal jury will begin hearing evidence this week about alleged bribes paid to Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
Helena Tantillo, 59, the former executive of a Dallas County contractor, is charged with lying to the FBI in connection with the Price corruption investigation. A jury will be picked Tuesday in Austin for her trial, which is expected to last about a week.
John Wiley Price
Tantillo, of Austin, was managing director of BearingPoint when the firm won a multimillion-dollar contract in 2005 to digitize Dallas County records. She allegedly lied about the nature of a temporary pay increase for one of the company’s employees, Christian Campbell, which allowed the bribes to be paid.
Tantillo told agents that Campbell’s $5,000 monthly pay was doubled for two pay periods in order to donate money to a favorite charity of a different Dallas County commissioner. But in fact, some of that extra money ended up going to Price’s political consultant, Kathy Nealy, who then paid money to Price, federal authorities say.
Campbell was indicted along with Price in July 2014. He pleaded guilty last July. As part of that deal, Campbell is expected to testify for the government this week.
Nealy and Dapheny Fain, Price’s top assistant, also have been charged in the Price bribery and tax evasion case. Nealy, Fain and Price have all denied the charges and are scheduled to go to trial in September in Dallas.
Tantillo, who describes herself on Linkedin as an independent consultant, is charged with two counts of making a false statement to law enforcement.
John R. Teakell, a Dallas criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said that if Tantillo is convicted, she could offer to cooperate with the government and possibly testify against Price in an attempt to lower her sentence.
On the other hand, if Tantillo is acquitted, it could signal possible weaknesses in some of the government’s evidence against Price, he said.
“Then the question is, how believable are those people [witnesses]?” said Teakell, who has no connection to the Price case.
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