HOUSTON (Covering Katy News) — A federal jury on Friday found former Houston Independent School District Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby and contractor Anthony Hutchison guilty on all counts in a bribery and over billing scheme that prosecutors say involved nearly $530,000 in bribes and defrauded Texas's largest school district.
After six hours of deliberation following a 19-day trial, jurors convicted Busby on 13 counts including conspiracy, bribery, filing false tax returns and witness tampering. Hutchison was found guilty on 21 counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, filing false tax returns and witness tampering.
Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin expressed disappointment outside the courthouse.
"The verdict was too quick. Thirty-three counts, two defendants, it was too quick," DeGuerin said.
The verdict marked a dramatic fall from grace for Busby, who dedicated over two decades to the district, rising from a custodian to chief operating officer before his contract expired in 2020.
“HISD is the largest school district in the state, and the people of Houston trusted that district officials would spend their tax dollars wisely and carefully. Instead, Busby and Hutchinson defrauded the school district and the taxpayers of millions of dollars, doing so to line their own pockets,” said the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Nicholas J. Ganjei. “People need to have faith in their public institutions, and they can become understandably cynical when they hear of public servants stealing from school kids by taking bribes and over-billing."
Five former HISD officials testified, all of whom received bribe payments - Rhonda Skillern-Jones, former HISD school board president; Derrick Sanders, officer of construction services; Alfred Hoskins, general manager of facilities, maintenance and operations; Gerron Hall, area manager for maintenance – south; and Luis Tovar, area manager for maintenance - north.
They described the pressure Busby put on them to provide Hutchison’s companies more work with HISD as well as larger projects following Hurricane Harvey. They recounted how they received tens of thousands of dollars over the course of 2017 and 2018 or longer.
During the trial, Busby denied accusations from former HISD construction official Derrick Sanders, who testified that Busby pressured him to hire Hutchison's firms or assign them landscaping portions of larger construction projects. "Everything he told you was incorrect," Busby said. "Totally untrue."
In a bold move, Busby took the stand in his own defense, denying that he had ever accepted bribes from Hutchison or paid any on Hutchison's behalf — allegedly including two payments to Skillern-Jones, who had testified earlier in the trial.
Busby, according to evidence revealed in the trial, made excessive cash deposits to over 18 bank accounts which was far more than his legitimate income. He attempted to explain it based on other sources of income, but the jury was not convinced it accounted for the close to $3 million cash deposits made over the course of five years that were not declared in his income tax returns for 2015-2019.
Skillern-Jones said she received two cash payments in a Walmart parking lot: one for $5,000 and another for $12,000, following Busby's assurances that he would manage projects in her district. Busby denied making these payments, testifying he gave her $10,000 in cash only once for Hurricane Harvey victim gift cards.
Busby and Hutchison face decades in prison and will be sentenced in July.
"Top notch," said Keri Fovargue, former principal of River Oaks Elementary, describing Busby's on the job performance. "If you needed something, he delivered."
Prosecutors alleged that from 2013 to 2020, Hutchison overbilled the district by approximately $6 million and maintained dominance by bribing HISD employees, including Busby, with cash.