The owner of a company that tows for two Dallas County constables tried unsuccessfully late Wednesday to stop the county from soliciting towing contracts for those constables.

Milad Nasrallah Sr. filed a request for an emergency restraining order against the county to stop it from seeking bids for towing and vehicle storage services for constable Precincts 1 and 5.

Nasrallah said the county's actions are interfering with contracts his company, Dowdy Ferry Auto Services, has with constables Derick Evans of Precinct 1 and Jaime Cortes of Precinct 5.

Judge Emily Tobolowsky of the 298th Civil District Court denied the request but set a hearing for Monday to give Nasrallah another chance to make his case.

County officials say the constable contracts aren't valid, and they are seeking bids to professionalize county law enforcement towing operations.

The proposals are due Dec. 3.

Dowdy Ferry is under investigation by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on suspicion of administrative violations.

The company has been impounding vehicles almost exclusively for Evans and Cortes.

County officials expressed concern about those operations after The Dallas Morning News reported in July that Cortes and Evans have been impounding thousands of vehicles without overseeing the process or requiring Dowdy Ferry to provide records showing what happened to the vehicles.

Evans and Cortes have said their offices have done nothing improper.

The vehicles continue to sit on Dowdy Ferry's southern Dallas County land near Hutchins.

Dowdy Ferry's lawyer, Dan Wyde, has said Nasrallah's company owns the vehicles because they were abandoned and that his client does not have to auction them.

The county's lawyer, Bob Schell, chief of the district attorney's civil division, said he has yet to see the towing contracts, the existence of which surfaced last week.

When first asked about towing contracts in July, Evans and Cortes said they didn't have any.

Wyde showed The News the towing agreements last week but refused to provide copies.

Nasrallah's petition didn't contain a copy of the contracts – a fact noted by the judge, according to county officials.

"I find it completely appalling that he would think he can waltz into court and say he has a contract and can't even produce it," County Judge Jim Foster said. "Where is the credibility?"

Nasrallah's petition said Evans' contract with Dowdy Ferry, signed in September 2006, and Cortes' contract, signed in May 2008, are in effect until 2011 and have a renewal clause.

The petition said the county knew about the contracts but began soliciting bids for towing services in all the constable precincts.

Shannon Brown, assistant Commissioners' Court administrator and former purchasing director, said she didn't know until recently that the constables had signed contracts with Dowdy Ferry.

Nasrallah's petition said he has met his contractual obligations with the constables and that the county has breached its own contracts by seeking bids.

It also said the county is violating the state transportation code by seeking "revenue sharing" opportunities that it is not entitled to under the law.

Nasrallah, who has been in the towing business since 2006, has made a sizable investment in equipment for his towing business, and his monthly expenses are about $55,000, according to the petition.

Nasrallah claims in the petition that his business will become insolvent if the restraining order isn't granted.