After the jury's decision came down in the John Wiley Price trial Friday, NBC 5 reached out to all of the Dallas County commissioners, including District 2's Mike Cantrell.
Cantrell said there are new safeguards and rules regarding transparency in place to prevent anything like the Price trial from happening again.
"Well, I'm glad this day came, and I'm glad they reached a verdict," Cantrell said.
After Price was indicted, Cantrell led an unsuccessful effort to get Price temporarily removed from office, and he also testified in the trial against Price. After the trial was over, Cantrell reflected on the trial's results
"If you believe in the system, you have to trust the system," he said.
He also said it's been a busy Friday with a lot of community members reaching out to him.
"I think there's a lot of people that are very disappointed in the outcome of the trial, and I think there's also a lot of people that are very happy with it. So it all depends on which side of the street that you're on," Cantrell said.
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As for county business and moving forward? Price missed Dallas County Commission meetings because of his trial, but Cantrell said Price's absence did not slow down county business. However, Cantrell also said that even though Price was found not guilty, the whole ordeal can cast a shadow on the county.
"Any time you have a situation like this, it affects the reputation of a governmental entity, because people's perception of, well, 'It's not a level playing field with Dallas County,' or any other governmental entity, so, yes, it does have an impact," Cantrell said.
So will Dallas County be able to move past any negative perceptions?
"I think having a verdict allows us to sort of put this behind us depending on what they do with the tax issues. But we ought to be able to move forward now without that cloud hanging over Dallas County and just move forward and get things done," Cantrell said.
