John Wiley Price attorneys want more time to review evidence

Defense attorneys for a Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price say they need more time to go through evidence in the largest public corruption case ever in Dallas County.

The complex case against Price was at least three years in the making. It is an investigation into ten and a half years of his public business and personal banking.

Documents show Price’s attorney are seeking a continuance to go through “7.5 terabytes of information (1 TB can hold 85 million pages of word documents), 5.77 million electronic files and 3.5 terabytes of video, audio recordings and photographs (1TB can hold 500 hours of film).”

Attorney Stephanie Luce-Ola with experience in white collar and corruption cases is not involved in the Price case.

“This is a difficult case to organize,” she said. “I mean, it’s an all hands on deck. They’ve got a number of lawyers working on it and the support staff who are helping those attorneys I’m sure is immense.”    

For the first time, we have learned the government has audio recordings and photographs of Price and others. They also have one year of video from what’s known as ‘pole cameras,’ trained on the commissioner’s Oak Cliff home.

The cameras were part of long-term surveillance and no permission from the courts or the justice department is needed.

“As long as what the cameras are fixed on is generally something that the public could view, it is permissible or can be permissible based on your jurisdiction under the fourth amendment,” explained Luce-Ola.

Price’s attorneys are waiting for a judge to rule. The government is not opposing the request for more time.

“The pre-trial motions were due on the thirteenth of June and neither side has filed those,” said Luce-Ola. “So I think that’s a pretty good indication that they all think that this motion for continuance is gonna be granted.”