Grand jury selection may have been completed in the cases of Texas Governor Rick Perry and Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg however, one of the 54 complaints now CLOSED by the Travis County District Attorney’s office is the one I reported on August 22, 2013. The complaint filed by Adrian Heath of The Woodlands alleged Texas State Senator Tommy Williams exerted improper influence through the use of his office to ensure the Texas Attorney General reached a decision to file criminal charges against the complainant and others.
The letter from the Travis County DA is dated September 10th, 2013 and reads:
“We have now reviewed all of the supplemental materials that you have provided to us concerning the Secretary of the Senate Patsy Spaw and Senator Tommy Williams’ alleged violations of the Texas Public Information Act, Abuse of Official Capacity, and Improper Influence.
We continue to be unable to find sufficient evidence to support a full investigation or prosecution for a violation of the Texas Public Information Act. Further, we believe we do not have sufficient evidence to establish the necessary mental state elements for the Offense of Abuse of Official Capacity (Penal Code Section 39.02) or Improper Influence (Penal Code Section 36.04) under the high evidentiary burden mandated in criminal cases. Moreover, much of the conduct at issue occurred outside of the statute of limitations period (2 years for misdemeanors).
In addition, the other potential infractions you have brought to our attention occurred in Montgomery County. Therefore, we lack proper venue for a Travis County prosecution.
For the above reasons, we are again closing this file at this time.”
Adrian Heath’s letter to the Travis County Public Integrity Unit languished in Lehmberg’s office for over EIGHT MONTHS since being received by the unit on December 11, 2012. BJP reported the details of the complaint on August 22, 2013 and the Travis County DA dated their written response to Adrian September 10, 2013.
The message is loud and clear…nothing to see here folks, move along.
WRM says
Keep in mind that the Public Integrity Unit had its budget cut almost completely by the Lehmberg/Perry spat, and isn’t putting much time at all into anything outside of Travis County.