AUSTIN - Texas Gov. Rick Perry made his first appearance in court Thursday morning in the felony case against him.
Perry was allowed to skip two previous pretrial hearings, but he attended Thursday's hearing, entering the courtroom through the back door judge's chambers and spoke quietly with attorneys as he waited for the judge to arrive.
A grand jury indicted the governor in August on charges of abuse of official power and coercion of a public servant, stemming from his veto of money for the Travis County District Attorney's office after D.A. Rosemary Lehmberg refused to step down after her DWI arrest.
Judge Bert Richardson decided to focus on one issue: whether special prosecutor Michael McCrum followed the correct procedure when he was sworn in to the case. McCrum has said he has 'no doubt' that he followed procedure, but Perry's lawyers have requested that the case be dismissed on those technicalities.
Perry's attorney, Tony Buzbee, told the judge that his first problem with McCrum's oath is that it was not filed or made public, instead that it was sitting in a file on someone's desk. He also claimed that the procedures surrounding the oath were done out of order. Buzbee said McCrum did not file the anti-bribery clause first before the oath was done as a procedure.
'If you are going to try to take away someone's liberty, you need to follow the letter of the law and the constitution,' Buzbee said.
McCrum said he has no knowledge that the defense had so many issues with the oath and that the exchange between both parties never mentioned these technicalities, adding, 'I'm just going to sit back and watch the show.'
Richardson said he will rule on the issue sometime next week.
Contributing: bberitaa.blogspot.com More on Rick Perry
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Posted by Unknown on Thursday, November 6, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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