Testimony begins in trial for Ex-CPRIT official Jerry Cobbs

Firm lawyers Rusty Hardin and Jennifer Brevorka, representing ex-cancer agency officer Jerry Cobbs in an Austin trial, told jurors in opening statements that their client became a scapegoat for his embattled employer that faced allegations of corruption over how it awarded state money to commercial research projects.

Mr. Cobbs was the chief commercialization officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, known as CPRIT. He pleaded not guilty  to a charge that he unlawfully secured the grant to a Dallas-based biotechnology firm.

The Texas Tribune reported that: “Ms. Brevorka characterized Cobbs as a hardworking man ‘at the intersection of finance and medicine’ who had been unfairly scrutinized after a rival at the state agency criticized him in the news media. ‘This is a case about acts that simply do not constitute a crime,’ she said. She added that she was ‘nervous, because for our client, Mr. Cobbs, the stakes are high.'”

Read the Texas Tribune story here