Travis DA: Perry wanted secret entrance to grand jury room

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg is handcuffed after pleading guilty to drunken driving on Friday, April 19, 2013, in court in Austin, Texas. Lehmberg was sentenced to 45 days in jail. Lehmberg, 63, was arrested last weekend and later issued a formal apology and said she would plead guilty to whatever charge the county prosecutor thought appropriate. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell) AUSTIN CHRONICLE OUT, COMMUNITY IMPACT OUT, MAGS OUT; NO SALES; INTERNET AND TV MUST CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHER AND STATESMAN.COM less Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg is handcuffed after pleading guilty to drunken driving on Friday, April 19, 2013, in court in Austin, Texas. Lehmberg was sentenced to 45 days in jail. ... more Photo: RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL, Associated Press Photo: RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL, Associated Press Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Travis DA: Perry wanted secret entrance to grand jury room 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said Thursday that a judge asked her staff whether there was a way for Gov. Rick Perry's aides to avoid a public entrance if they appear before a grand jury.

The grand jury is looking into whether Perry acted improperly by promising last year to kill funding for the public corruption division overseen by Lehmberg unless she resigned after a messy drunken-driving arrest.

She stayed and Perry carried out the threat. His staff said his veto was proper use of his power.

The inquiry about avoiding the public entrance came from Senior Judge Bert Richardson of San Antonio, who is presiding over the case, Lehmberg said. The question was posed “apparently at the request of” Perry attorney David Botsford, she said.

“I guess I don't understand why they feel the need to enter the grand jury room other than the way everybody else does — which is through the front door, and through the lobby, and into the grand jury room,” Lehmberg said in an interview.

Avoiding that public route — which typically is staked out by reporters — would involve taking a circuitous path through her own secure office, she said.

But Lehmberg said if the judge wants it to be handled that way, she would have one of her investigators facilitate it.

“The irony of course is that all of that — I don't own it, but it's all my offices,” Lehmberg said of the non-public route.

Botsford didn't immediately return a telephone call. He was hired by Perry's office at state expense to ensure, his staff has said, that the facts were given to the special prosecutor in the case, San Antonio attorney Michael McCrum.

“We respect the longstanding legal principle of grand jury confidentiality and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment on the proceedings,” Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said Thursday. “The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto power afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution, and we remain ready and willing to assist with this inquiry.”

Richardson declined comment.