Perry lawyers: Prosecutor alleging facts not in indictments
AUSTIN, Texas — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry's legal team again argued Monday that felony abuse-of-power charges against their client should be tossed, saying that a special prosecutor's attempts to modify the original indictment seek to "substitute his own version of the facts."
Perry was indicted in August on charges stemming from a 2013 veto of state funding for a public corruption division within the office of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. Special prosecutor Michael McCrum earlier this month modified a charge of coercion of a public servant in response to an order by judge overseeing the case, Republican Bert Richardson.
In 30 pages of filings Monday, Austin attorney David Botsford states that McCrum "should not be allowed to take inconsistent positions and insert facts not found by a grand jury into an indictment."
The filing also says that if it's allowed to stand, another charge Perry faces, abuse of official capacity, should be converted to a misdemeanor. That's because, the filings argue, the case centers on the veto, not the state funding. It therefore had no monetary value — and any action worth less than $20 doesn't constitute a felony in Texas.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/texas/perry-lawyers-prosecutor-alleging-facts-not-in-ind/nkG98/
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