Judge Warns Against Rick Perry Threatening Grand Jury

Austin American-Statesman is reporting that a Texas district court judge out of Austin issued a warning on Thursday that she intends to protect the grand jury that indicted Gov. Rick Perry from threats, implied or otherwise.

The Governor was indicted on two felonies August 15 by a Travis County grand jury for abusing the power of his office, making him the first Texas Governor to be indicted in nearly 100 years.

According to Austin American-Statesman,

Judge Julie Kocurek of the 390th District Court, a Democrat, said Perry’s Saturday statement, issued a day after the indictment, could be construed as a threat and possible violation of the law. Kocurek, as the administrative presiding judge of all criminal courts in the county, said that “no one is above the law,” and the public needs to know that grand jurors are legally protected from any threat.

Kocurek stated: “I have a duty to make sure that our members of the grand jury are protected. I am defending the integrity of our grand jury system,” adding that Perry might have made a veiled threat when he said: “I am confident we will ultimately prevail, that this farce of a prosecution will be revealed for what it is, and that those responsible will be held to account.”

According to Kocurek, the only people that Perry could have been referring to as being “held to account” are the grand jurors, and as the Statesman reports:

The Texas Penal Code that outlaws obstruction and retaliation says that anyone who “intentionally or knowingly harms or threatens to harm” a grand juror faces a second degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

It is noteworthy that Kocurek appears to be a Democrat in name only [a DINO?] Kocurek, the only Republican in history elected to a state district judgeship in Travis County, was initially appointed to the newly formed 390 District by then-governor George W. Bush and went on to defeat a Democrat challenger by a margin of 4 percent a year later. Facing certain defeat in 2008, Kocurek switched parties.

Burnt Orange Report wrote at the time:

That same year, incumbent Republican Patrick Keel, who had been appointed to fill a vacancy, lost his 345th District Court judge position to Democratic challenger Stephen Yelenosky, who won by 12 percentage points.

Local Republican Mac McGuire stated in a just released Austin American Statesman article that “It scared the bejabbers out of her…In order to stay a district judge in Travis County, she’s going to have to change parties.”

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