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Austin attorney’s felony drug arrest captured on national TV

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — With a national television audience watching, Williamson County deputies rummaged through an Austin attorney’s BMW last Saturday night. Deputies pulled him over, claiming he failed to use a turn signal.

That traffic stop ended with a felony charge of manufacturing or delivery of a controlled substance against Victor G. Hardy. The drug listed on court filings is methamphetamine.

Deputies made the traffic stop during a taping of Live PD. Hardy is listed as the only person in the car and the driver of the car, according to the criminal complaint.

Williamson County deputies allowed the television show to record and broadcast the search of Hardy’s car only inches away from deputies performing the search. Still images from the show depict deputies searching the trunk of Hardy’s BMW along Anderson Mill Road in Austin.

This is the drug inventory Williamson County deputies reported following a search of Victor Hardy’s car on July 20, 2019.

Court records show the only charge against Hardy is related to the methamphetamine, despite the other drugs and paraphernalia deputies reported finding in his car.

“Based on my training and experience and based on the amounts, variety and packaging of the controlled substances, and that some substances were packaged in small quantities for individual resale, I determined that Victor was intending to resell the controlled substances,” Deputy J. Pereira wrote in the criminal complaint.

Hardy told KXAN he had “No comment” in a call to his cell phone Thursday. Hardy left the Williamson County jail on a $50,000 bond Sunday, according to jail records.

Calls and emails to Hardy’s law firm asking about his employment status have not yet been returned.

The Texas Bar Association’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel is aware of Hardy’s charges. The CDC told KXAN the charges make Hardy eligible for “compulsory discipline,” according to the office’s Public Affairs Counsel, Claire Reynolds.

However, the CDC would have to wait for a conviction on a charge to begin the compulsory disciplinary process, according to Reynolds. As of this report, the Texas Bar shows Hardy’s law license is in good standing.

Hardy is a 1994 graduate of the University of Texas Law School and he earned his master’s in law from the Harvard Law School in 1997, according to Hardy’s law firm biography. Hardy “has extensive experience in high-stakes patent infringement litigation,” according to his firm’s web site.

Hardy is licensed to practice in NY and TX state courts, according to his resume. KXAN found 46 open and closed federal civil cases where Hardy is listed as an attorney in federal courts in California, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Texas and Washington.

Hardy’s bio also lists his experience interning for a Texas Supreme Court judge, working as a “Special Assistant Corporation Counsel” for the city of New York’s Law Department and Hardy tried four homicide cases as a “Special Assistant District Attorney” in Kings County, NY.

Hardy’s next court date is set for August 20, 2019 in Williamson County.