On Thursday, when Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed leaves office, First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg will be out of a job.

DA-elect Nico LaHood has opted not to retain Reed’s longtime top lieutenant, who needs just 14 more months working for the county to collect his retirement.

For a moment, it appeared Herberg would collect nonetheless.

On Monday, Dec. 15, Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff was feeling “pretty positive” about Herberg landing a new job coordinating the county’s legislative agenda, he said. Wolff was trying to find someone to fill that position.

That same day, LaHood began a criminal case in district court, defending a client charged with aggravated assault with serious bodily injury, a felony. His client, Omid Jamali, is accused of punching someone hard enough in the face to break bones.

LaHood had insisted on trying the case two weeks before he takes over as DA.

Before the case went to trial, LaHood — straddling the line between defense attorney and DA-elect — hired the prosecutors, his courtroom adversaries, to work for him as DA when he takes office. On the first day of trial, LaHood asked one of those prosecutors, Alaina Altis, to speak to Herberg about reducing the charge against his client to a Class C misdemeanor with deferred adjudication, the equivalent of a traffic ticket.

On Tuesday, Dec. 16, Herberg refused.

Two days later, on Thursday, Dec. 18, Herberg’s job with the county disintegrated, along with any hope that he would work for the county in any capacity. The reason, according to Wolff, was LaHood, who made it clear to top officials that he’d be “offended” if the county hired Herberg.

“I don’t know that we, the county, need any other elected’s consent (to hire Herberg),” Wolff told me, “but we still have to play in the sandbox with almost 60 other electeds, and the DA is certainly one of those. I heard from (County Manager David) Smith and (County) Judge (Nelson) Wolff and (County Commissioner) Paul Elizondo that Nico made it pretty clear that he’d be offended if we put Cliff in that position.”

Wolff added, “Nobody wants to piss off the incoming DA.”

Nelson Wolff did not return a call on Monday. Herberg declined to comment.

Kevin Wolff’s timeline suggests LaHood dropped the ax on Herberg after Herberg refused to let Jamali off the hook for the felony. LaHood denied this, insisting he froze out Herberg weeks before the trial.

“All of this was decided way before the trial,” LaHood said.

Smith denied that the decision not to hire Herberg was made the week of Dec. 15. He said he was aware that LaHood had “misgivings” about Herberg by Nov. 24.

On Monday, LaHood met with the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board. I asked him why he’d blocked Herberg from working for the county.

“If you’re giving me that much power, I’ll take it,” LaHood said. “I didn’t know I had that much power … Do I think that (Herberg) is right to be around the DAs office? No … I don’t think Cliff Herberg should be working anywhere around the DA’s office, to include the county.”

Did he ask prosecutors to reduce his client’s felony to a misdemeanor?

“I asked for a dismissal,” LaHood said. “That’s what every defense attorney should, ethically … I asked for a dismissal (and prosecutors) said no.”

Later, through an open records request, I obtained a Dec. 19 email from Altis to Herberg, who had ordered the prosecutor to document the trial’s chain of events.

“Before we left the courtroom on Monday, Nico asked me to speak to you about whether we would be willing to offer the defendant a Class C Deferred due to the fact that the court was considering a mistrial,” Altis wrote.

Later, LaHood acknowledged seeking that plea deal. But he insisted he told Smith weeks before the trial began that he didn’t want the county to hire Herberg.

“We had a discussion three weeks, four weeks — as soon as I won — before (trial), about Cliff, and potentially, not for sure, anything, not anything,” he said. “Kevin Wolff is inaccurate, how about that? He wasn’t involved in any conversations. What conversation was he involved in? Did he say I was there with him?

“I’m telling you that I met with his dad (Nelson Wolff), David Smith, weeks before. It had nothing to do with (the trial). That issue was already resolved a long time ago, and nothing was for sure. And I have some issues, ethical issues with Cliff Herberg … I have ethical issues with the way Cliff Herberg practices law.”

LaHood should reflect on the way he practices law himself. Earlier this year, while campaigning to topple Reed, he told me, “Lady Justice wears a blindfold for a reason.”

To insist on defending a client while controlling the jobs of those prosecuting that client, however, shows that LaHood still needs to locate that blindfold, preferably before Thursday.

bchasnoff@express-news.net