The indictment of Gov. Rick Perry by a grand jury in Travis County, Texas, is part of a power struggle that originates with a serious crime, albeit not one committed by Gov. Perry.
That crime, as everyone knows by now, is drunk driving, and it was committed by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.
When Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, Democrat, was arrested and charged with drunk driving on April 12, 2013, her blood alcohol level measured .23.
That is just shy of three times the legal limit in Texas, which is .08.
According to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Lehmberg must have consumed about 10 alcoholic drinks in one hour to achieve a .23 blood alcohol rating.
District Attorney Lehmberg also had an open bottle of vodka in her car, violating Texas’ longstanding open container law.
During processing after her arrest, Lehmberg denied that she was drunk, despite that .23 blood alcohol level, and the fact that she had been reported to police for driving the wrong way down an Austin street.
You can watch Lehmberg attempt to abuse her power in the video of her processing in jail after her arrest. Lehmberg is belligerent and violent in the video, and had to be restrained. When Lehmberg asks the officers if they have called “Greg,” she is referring to Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton, who she assumed would spring her from jail despite the overwhelming evidence that she had committed drunk driving.
Lehmberg’s taunt at the officers to “call Greg” is at the 1:49 mark in the video.
At one point, a female officer tells Lehmberg “You’ve been arrested for DWI.”
“That’s y’all’s problem, not mine,” Lemberg retorts, a clear threat given her position as Travis County DA.
The officers also stated that Lehmberg attempted to scratch an officer. She could therefore have been charged with assaulting an officer of the law.
Depending on circumstances, assaulting a police officer can be a 1st degree felony, carrying a penalty of five years to life in prison if convicted.
Lehmberg’s drunk driving arrest capped a year of spending heavily on alcohol, according to receipts of her purchases from Twin Liquors stores from January 2012 to April 2013, the month of her arrest.
Austin’s KEYE-TV posted a PDF of all of those receipts.
From January 2012 to April 2013 — 15 months — Lehmberg made 59 purchases of alcohol at various Twin Liquors stores, a rate of nearly one purchase a week.
She bought 76 bottles of alcohol. According to the receipts, Lehmberg prefers Ciroc vodka. Lehmberg routinely purchased 1.75 liter bottles of vodka, at a price of nearly $60 each. On occasions, she bought more than one 1.75 liter bottle of Ciroc at a time.
Those 76 bottles add up to 24.7 gallons of alcohol purchased over 15 months. The last purchase in the KEYE-compiled list was on April 2, 2013 — 10 days before her arrest for drunk driving, and the subsequent attempt to abuse her power by trying to intimidate the officers who processed her in jail. Lehmberg purchased vodka on that day. An open bottle of vodka was found in her car during her arrest.
I’m not an accountant, but during the 15 month period of the receipts, according to the receipts Lehmberg spent roughly $4,400 on alcohol purchases at various Twin Liquors stores, a rate of about $293 per month.
After her drunk driving arrest, Lehmberg was sentenced to 45 days in jail and had to pay a $4,000 fine. Lehmberg also lost her law license for 180 days.
Lehmberg refused to resign as Travis County DA, a position that also puts her atop the Public Integrity Unit. She sued to retain the post, and holds it to this day. Perry sought to use the power of the veto to get Lehmberg, whose drunk driving arrest and videotaped abuse of power destroyed her credibility, to resign in order to restore the Public Integrity Unit’s image.
Democrats who are now calling on Gov. Perry to resign were silent when Lehmberg was arrested for drunk driving, and after revelations that she attempted to abuse her power. They have also remained silent as Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, Democrat, faces indictment on a host of corruption charges filed against him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Price faces 11 counts of corruption, totaling about $950,000. The Democrat offshoot group Battleground Texas is gleefully attacking Gov. Perry, but they also remain silent about Lehmberg’s conviction on drunk driving and her attempted abuse of power, and Commissioner Price’s indictment on serious corruption charges.
While Texas Democrats have gone all in to support the indictment of Gov. Perry, outside Texas they are fast becoming laughingstocks, even among their fellow liberals.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member