Three former Houston Independent School District employees recounted on Thursday how they accepted thousands of dollars in cash from Anthony Hutchison, whose companies were under contract with the district at the time.
The employees, all of whom have pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for facilitating or refraining from interfering with the awarding of HISD jobs to Hutchison’s companies, said the cash was often handed to them while they sat in Hutchison’s Chevy Silverado in the parking lots of HISD schools. At other times, they stood outside the vehicle while Hutchison handed them wads of cash.
“Thank you, this is for Waltrip,” Alfred Hoskins, the former general manager of facilities maintenance and operations, recalled Hutchison saying sometime around 2017 or 2018. One of Hutchison’s companies, Just Construction, had been working at Waltrip High School during that period, Hoskins testified.
“It’s fine, I help those that help me out,” Luis Tovar recalled Hutchison saying after the former area manager for maintenance in HISD’s north division initially refused the $10,000 Hutchison offered. Tovar said he ultimately accepted the cash, along with an additional $30,000 over several months.
However, Hutchison conveyed little when he approached Gerron Hall, the former area manager for maintenance in HISD’s south division, in a parking lot and handed him an envelope containing either $3,500 or $4,500.
“Thank you,” was all Hutchison said, Hall testified.
Despite receiving money on multiple occasions, Hall and Tovar testified that Hutchison never explained the purpose of the payments, nor did they ever question them. They knew, however, that what they were doing was wrong, the former HISD employees said.
They also knew that their boss, Hoskins, had instructed them to keep offering jobs to Just Construction despite worries about the company’s high prices. Hoskins, in turn, said Brian Busby, who he reported to, had directed him to do the same.
Just Construction’s dealings with HISD date back to 2017, when the company applied to become an “approved” or “annual” vendor for minor maintenance services. According to multiple days of testimony in the federal bribery trial of Hutchison and Busby, HISD maintains a list of annual vendors it relies upon to handle urgent tasks and repairs when there isn’t enough time to go through a formal bidding process.
Tovar and Hall, along with at least one other person, served on a committee tasked with evaluating the applications. On Thursday, Hoskins testified that he instructed the three men to ensure they gave Just Construction a “high score” because Busby had directed him to “make sure they got in.”
Tovar testified that he followed these instructions, and Just Construction was ultimately chosen, along with two other companies, to serve as an annual vendor for minor maintenance services. According to Hoskins, three companies that didn’t make the cut reached out to Tovar and Hall to express their frustration and disappointment.
Hoskins testified that about two weeks later, Busby asked him during a lunch meeting to ensure that Hutchison “stayed busy” and continued to receive work. Hutchison, who was also present, informed him and Busby that he didn’t need to know about any arrangements they might make between themselves. In response, Hoskins said he raised his hands with palms facing outward and told them he would do what he was told.
Envelopes in parking lots
From that point on, Hoskins testified, Hutchison periodically texted him to set up meetings. When they met, Hoskins said Hutchison would discuss the jobs he was managing or potential future jobs, even though Hoskins had never approved or reviewed the jobs Hutchison mentioned.
The first payment occurred shortly thereafter. Hoskins testified that Hutchison texted him to meet at Shearn Elementary School one day in late 2017. When he arrived, he spotted Hutchison’s Chevy Silverado and got inside. According to Hoskins, Hutchison then reached over and handed him an envelope containing at least $2,500 in cash, thanking him. In shock, he took the money and exited the car.
According to Hoskins, additional payments followed at another elementary school, Hutchison’s home, a shopping center near his home, and a nearby park. The amounts varied, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. Most of the time, Hutchison would thank him and say it was for a specific school, Hoskins said. All the schools Hutchison mentioned were ones where he had projects, Hoskins testified.
According to Hoskins, the final payment came about three weeks before FBI and IRS agents raided HISD’s administrative offices, Busby’s and Hutchison’s homes, and Hutchison’s businesses in February 2020.
After the raid that afternoon, Hoskins said he received a call from an unknown number, which turned out to be Busby. Hoskins testified that Busby, who was by then the district’s chief operating officer, reassured him not to worry, claiming the raid had nothing to do with him.
That evening, around 9:30 p.m., they spoke again, and Busby instructed him to “tell the guys” that he had no involvement in awarding the annual vendor contract to Just Construction. Hoskins testified that by “guys,” he understood Busby to refer to Hall, Tovar, and the other individual who evaluated the vendor applications.
Months later, Hoskins said he was on his way to HEB when Hutchison, driving his Chevy Silverado, pulled up beside him and signaled for him to follow. After a short drive, they parked on a residential street, and Hoskins said he got into Hutchison’s vehicle. Hutchison then told him that federal authorities had a list and instructed him to tell federal officials, if asked, that the list documented money that Hoskins had won from gambling.
“OK, how much I won,” Hoskins recalled saying, to which Hutchison replied: “No, you won and lost.”
Hoskins testified that, aside from occasional $100 or $200 sports bets, he had never gambled with Hutchison or Busby. By then, Hoskins had been in contact with an FBI agent, whom he called shortly after parting ways with Hutchison. He also had been given a recording device by the FBI, though he did not have it with him that day.
Prosecutors contend the interaction between Hutchison and Hoskins amounts to witness tampering.
During cross-examination Thursday, Dick DeGuerin, who is representing Busby in the trial, sought to downplay the significance of Busby’s request that Just Construction be scored favorably. DeGuerin pointed to testimony from Hall, Tovar, and Derrick Sanders, the former officer of construction services, all of whom stated that Just Construction performed above-average work.
DeGuerin further argued that, having spent decades with the district, Busby was simply sharing his expertise on what constitutes a good contractor, rather than improperly influencing the selection process as the prosecution suggested. He contended that Busby’s actions were within the scope of his role and did not constitute wrongdoing.
He also sought to discredit Tovar’s testimony, arguing that he was merely acting out of self-interest to evade what would likely have been a decades-long prison sentence if he had not cooperated with the authorities and, therefore, could not be trusted.
Under heavy questioning by DeGuerin, Tovar acknowledged that he had initially told FBI agents at an IHOP restaurant in 2021 that he had received money from Hutchison on two occasions. He later revised that figure to five, a change he attributed to hiring a lawyer who helped him navigate the cooperation process.
A ‘bribe ledger’ with initials
Letitia Quinones-Hollins, who is representing Hutchison alongside Rusty Hardin, did not have the opportunity to question Hoskins on Thursday but is expected to do so on Friday. However, for much of Thursday’s proceedings, the defense attorney focused on discrediting Hall’s testimony.
Hall, a former manager who oversaw maintenance in what was then HISD’s south division, estimated that Hutchison paid him between $40,000 and $50,000, and he never received more than $9,000 at a time.
However, Quinones-Hollins pointed out that Hall’s claim appears to contradict his own plea agreement, in which he admitted to receiving $20,000 related to projects at J.P. Cornelius Elementary School and Las Americas Newcomer School.
Quinones-Hollins also argued that during negotiations for his plea agreement, Hall had told federal authorities that he had not received more than $50,000 from Hutchison. However, according to the agreement, federal authorities said a “bribe ledger”—a record they claim documents the instances when Hutchison paid bribes to Hall and other HISD employees—indicates that Hall received approximately $57,500 in 2017 alone.
“Your motive is not to tell the truth. Your motive is to make them happy,” Quinones-Hollins said, referring to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Searls Johnson and Heather Rae Winter, who are prosecuting the case.
“No, I’m telling the truth. I’m just off on the dates,” Hall replied. He added, “I never said I was correct on the dates.”
Despite Hall’s testimony on Thursday that he was never paid more than $9,000 by Hutchison at any one time, phone records presented by Winter indicated that a number belonging to Hutchison texted his address to Hall on December 12, 2017.
In the ledger found at Hutchison’s house, an entry states, “15k 12/12 4241.” Prosecutors argue that the last four digits correspond to the street number of one of Hutchison’s townhomes.
Another ledger entry says “10k Lamar 1/11.” In the phone records presented by Winter, Hall texted Hutchison’s number, “1230 Lamar or lanier.” The number associated with Hutchison then replied, “Yes.”
On the left side of those two entries is the letter G, which prosecutors claim stands for Gerron. Dozens of other entries also have letters next to them, and at times, the names “Derrick” and “Rhonda” are spelled out. The prosecutors assert that those names refer to Derrick Sanders and Rhonda Skillern-Jones, who served on the HISD school board from 2012 to 2019.
Derrick Sanders, the former HISD officer of construction services, spent four hours on the witness stand on Tuesday, testifying that he reassigned landscaping jobs from other contractors to Hutchison after initially refusing. Although he couldn’t recall the exact number of times Hutchison paid him, he estimated that he received a total of $60,000 to $70,000 between 2017 and 2018. Skillern-Jones, who also pleaded guilty, is expected to testify on Friday.
While Hardin has acknowledged that Hutchison occasionally gave money to HISD employees, he has argued that the payments were gifts, that Hutchison never expected anything in return, and that, therefore, there was never an agreement to defraud the district. DeGuerin, for his part, has maintained that Busby never received money from Hutchison as alleged.
On Wednesday, Winter, the federal prosecutor, reviewed many of the ledger entries, showing that in many cases, the dollar amounts listed next to the alleged bribe payments precisely matched the amounts on invoices submitted by Hutchison’s companies to HISD and the purchase orders that the school district later sent to those companies.
Additionally, the amounts crossed out in the ledger and replaced with new figures mirrored those that Hutchison crossed out and replaced in handwritten work proposals. Each invoice included the name of the HISD employee who acted as the district’s representative for that specific project. In all the cases reviewed by Winter, the HISD employee’s first name initial matched the initial found on the left side of the entry.
At the top of one of the ledger’s pages are the letters “BB.” Prosecutors argue that those initials stand for Busby. One of the ledger’s entries reads “paid LV 9/16,” which prosecutors contend means Hutchison paid Busby during a trip they took to Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 2017.
To support that claim, federal authorities obtained bank records for a Wells Fargo account in Busby and his then-wife’s name. The records show that on September 15, 2017, a purchase of $245.70 was made at a liquor store in Las Vegas. The next day, $758 was spent at a Vegas strip club named Girl Collection. The bank records also showed that a deposit of $31,820 was made on September 18, 2017.
Winter also presented an American Express credit card statement for Busby, showing that someone had spent $14,289 at a watch store, $860 at the Aria Resort & Casino, and about $1,000 on lodging in Las Vegas. According to the statement, the person was due to arrive on September 15, 2017, and leave on September 18. The account balance, or amount due by the end of that October, was $31,500.
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