Texas appeals court clears former Gov. Rick Perry in abuse-of-power case

Former Gov. Rick Perry widely celebrated as a fiscal conservative, is an unfortunate poster child of state government bonus malpractice. In his last weeks in office, he doled out huge bonuses for staffers in ways that he never had before. less Former Gov. Rick Perry widely celebrated as a fiscal conservative, is an unfortunate poster child of state government bonus malpractice. In his last weeks in office, he doled out huge bonuses for staffers in ... more Photo: Sid Hastings /Associated Press Photo: Sid Hastings /Associated Press Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Texas appeals court clears former Gov. Rick Perry in abuse-of-power case 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — Texas’ highest criminal court on Wednesday tossed out the remaining charge against former Gov. Rick Perry in the abuse-of-power case against him.

The court also affirmed a previous ruling for Perry that dismissed a second felony charge of coercion of a public official.

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“I’m proud to say that today the courts upheld the rule of law and the fundamental right of any person to speak freely without fear of political interference or legal intimidation. I’ve always known that the actions that I took were not only lawful and legal, they were right,” Perry said at a press conference at the limited-government Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Perry's lawyer Tony Buzbee said he was pleased with the ruling, which he said was "a long time coming."

"This case should have never been brought, and I’m glad the court put its foot down and ended it. It is troubling when a nonelected 'special prosecutor' can obtain an indictment and then pursue it in front of the very judge that appointed him. I said all along this case was foolishness and would be dismissed," he said by email.

The special prosecutor in the case, Michael McCrum, said he was on the road and hadn't read the opinion but added, "My understanding is the case gets dismissed and Mr. Perry can go on supporting Ted Cruz."

Perry is backing U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for the Republican presidential nomination.

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"The cynics around me tell me how could I ever possibly expect, after Rick Perry was appointed a lead role in Ted Cruz's campaign, a senator from Texas, that Rick Perry would sit in a trial this year and let all of the evidence come out?" McCrum said in the interview.

"I was a fool, I was told, to think that a Republican court was going to allow that to happen," he said. "I was naive enough to believe that our criminal justice system could withstand the power of politics. Unfortunately in the case of Rick Perry, in this election year, it could not."

The case centered on whether Perry, a Republican, improperly used his gubernatorial veto power over state budget dollars try to force out a Democratic prosecutor after her messy, high-profile drunken-driving arrest.

When Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg served time but declined to resign after the 2013 incident, Perry vetoed state funding for the public integrity unit that she had overseen. He said she had lost the public’s confidence.

The government watchdog group Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint over Perry’s veto, leading to his indictment in 2014. The group said Perry had authority to veto money but that he overstepped in trying to leverage that power to force out Lehmberg. Perry said he acted properly.

Perry’s legal team fought for more than a year to get the case dismissed without a trial, winning half the battle last year when the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals tossed one of the two counts against him. The lower appellate court ruled that the law underlying that coercion charge violated the First Amendment.

The state had urged the Court of Criminal Appeals to reinstate the charge alleging coercion of a public servant. Perry, meanwhile, fought the remaining count against him, which alleged abuse of official capacity.

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The state had said – and the 3rd Court had agreed -- that it was too early in the case to address Perry’s arguments against that abuse-of-power charge, saying according to precedent set by the high court, that only could happen after evidence was heard at a trial.

Eight judges on the nine-member Court of Criminal Appeals decided the case.

Judge Bert Richardson didn’t participate in the decision because he presided over Perry’s case at the trial court level, an assignment he got before being elected to the high court. He had declined to dismiss the case before trial, saying his hands were tied by the law and previous rulings by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

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