Texas Court Dismisses Indictment Against Former Gov. Rick Perry

The Federalist ^ | 02/24/2016

[SeekAndFind]

The top criminal appeals court in Texas just dismissed the nearly two-year-old felony indictment against former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The first of two charges against Perry was dismissed last July.

Today’s dismissal by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals of the second charge against Perry marks the end of the case against him:

Texas’ highest criminal court tossed the second and final felony charge against former Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday, likely ending a case the Republican says helped sink his short-lived 2016 presidential bid.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the abuse-of-power charge, which was filed after Perry threatened -- and then carried out -- a veto of state funding for a group of public corruption prosecutors after the Democratic head of the unit refused to resign.

A lower appeals court dismissed the other charge, coercion by a public servant, in July.

The longest-serving governor in Texas history, Perry left office in January 2015 while facing a felony indictment

Perry was indicted in August of 2014 by a Travis County jury for the twin crimes of threatening to veto a bill and then vetoing a bill. The ordeal began when Travis County district attorney Rosemary Lehmberg was arrested for driving drunk in 2013. Blood tests taken after her arrest showed that Lehmberg had a blood alcohol level of .239. Daschcam and police station videos, which went viral shortly after her arrest, showed Lehmberg lashing out at police and threatening to use her power as district attorney to punish them for arresting her.

Police were eventually forced to restrain her and fit her with a Hannibal Lecter-style face mask:

Following public outrage over Lehmberg’s behavior, Perry threatened to veto funding for a statewide public corruption unit that she headed unless she resigned. Perry cited Lehmberg’s drunk driving arrest and subsequent threats to police as evidence that she could not be trusted to oversee a unit that existed to root out corrupt public officials.

Special prosecutor Michael McCrum, egged on by the leftist non-profit Progress Texas, empaneled a grand jury to consider public corruption charges not against Lehmberg, but against Perry, for using his power as governor to veto a bill. Perry was formally indicted by that grand jury in August of 2014.

Had he been convicted, Perry could have faced up to 109 years in prison for the heinous crimes of explaining why he planned to veto a bill and then vetoing it.

You can read the full court ruling dismissing the indictment here.

[Parley Baer]

Justice served. The complaint was from a runaway district attorney out of Austin. Typical liberal farce.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Glad its over. Rick Perry is a good man. He was not the guy for President this year but still a good guy.

[dfwgator]

I hope Perry sues the folks who brought this suit.

[TBP]

Purely political. As all of us said at the time.

[Sasparilla]

The same liberal Prosecutor who got Perry indicted was the same one who got Tom DeLay indicted. It was also dismissed. Its a pattern of mischief that is purely political abuse of power with no repercussions.

[bert]

A lynching is required for this abuse of lawyers ability to file suit

[Toespi]

If true, he needs to be fired, if for no other reason than he is wasting taxpayers money for political purpose.

[kennedy]

Justice was not served. The indictments served their political purpose.

[DoughtyOne]

Folks, if you're reading this, you know what needs to happen.
If you can, please support the forum at this time. Thank you.

[elpadre]

What took so long?? There was no merit in the case from the outset.

[chris37]

Perry was never going to be president.

That being said, I’m glad these BS charges were tossed.

Some people seem to be using some nasty tactics in Texas.

[SwatTeam]

Ronnie Earle was the District Attorney that got a Grand Jury to indict Tom Delay. He had to sit 6 different GJs
before he finally got the indictment he was after. He was responsible for ruining Delay’s career and costing him lots of money to fight the legal charges.
This Lehmberg witch is the DA now. She appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the charges against Perry.

[Slyfox]

I guess she showed him.

[vette6387]

Texas, for all of it’s bluster about how “free” it is, has a justice system that’s the bottom of the barrel. Ole Ronny Earle screwed with Congressman Tom DeLay and now we have the same crap up in Whacko with the biker case where they are running around like a bunch of cats covering $hit trying to figure out how to get out from under murder under color of authority. Here in CA things are really effed up, but I have yet to see this kind of clearly crooked dealing in our justice system.

[diamond6]

Man, this needs to be in Ripley’s Believe it or Not!

[ReleaseTheHounds]

What f...ing bulls#!t that was. Where is Perry’s right to bring a countersuit? Oh, yeah.. our justice system doesn’t work that way.

[DoughtyOne]

[BereanBrain]

I am glad it was dropped. It was a political witch hunt from the Libs in Austin.

That being said, Rick Perry is NOT A CONSERVATIVE.

Let that be a lesson to those moderates who think they can be “friends” with progressive liberals.

Rick Perry is the definition of Establishment Corrupt Politican

[Political Junkie Too]

The indictments served their political purpose.

That's hard to say. I don't think Perry was ever a viable candidate, so this indictment was insurance more than a lethal blow. Certainly not on the Bush/Weinberger level that solidified Bill Clinton.

-PJ