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Local attorney faces charges in 2 counties
Published September 10, 2009
SEGUIN — Legal problems have mounted for a local attorney whose husband was indicted last July on federal wire fraud charges.
Grand juries in Guadalupe and Comal counties this past week indicted Seguin attorney Deborah Perry on allegations that she made a false entry in a government record and attempted to coerce a witness in a sexual assault case.
If proved at trial, witness tampering is a state jail felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000.
Tampering with a government record is a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if proved at trial.
Perry is the wife of Seguin resident Jeffrey Perry, who was indicted on 10 federal counts of wire fraud in connection with an alleged Ponzi investment scheme operated in three states.
If convicted, Jeffrey Perry faces 30 years in federal prison.
The state indictments were secured by Assistant Attorney General Steven M. Todd, who works in Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Criminal Prosecution Division, which investigates major and white collar crime allegations.
Todd made presentations before the Comal County grand jury on Wednesday, an official in the Comal County District Clerk’s Office said, and in Seguin on Thursday, said 25th Judicial District Attorney Heather Hollub, who referred requests for information to the attorney general’s office.
The indictment handed up by the Comal County grand jury alleged that Deborah Perry tried on April 30, 2009, to coerce a witness in a sexual assault case then pending in Seguin.
The witness was in jail in Comal County when Deborah Perry visited, the indictment said, “ ... and during said encounter by communicating a threat to accuse (the witness) of the criminal offense of rape or sexual assault, with intent to influence the said (witness) to abstain from, discontinue or delay the prosecution of another, namely the prosecution of the felony criminal case against (a Cibolo woman) pending in Guadalupe County District Court.”
The Guadalupe County indictment returned Thursday alleged an irregularity in a government record pertaining to what court observers call an “attorney bond,” which is where an attorney guarantees the bond of a client with the understanding that if the client later absconds, the attorney is liable for the full amount of the client’s bond.
What Deborah Perry allegedly did was claimed assets she didn’t have to secure the bond.
On July 14, 2008, it is alleged Perry “ ... intentionally and knowingly (made) a false entry into a governmental record, to wit: the ... record was a bail bond document required by the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Department and Guadalupe County Jail in order to release an inmate to bail, said false entry being that the defendant, in a statement of oath of sureties contained within the bail bond document represented that she in her own right was worth at least $300,000 and that she had property in the State of Texas liable to execution worth at least $300,000 when in fact, the defendant did not own nor have sufficient assets as stated therein.”
San Antonio attorney James Millan, who is representing Jeffrey Perry in federal court, referred calls pertaining to Deborah Perry to attorney Jimmy Parks, who he said would represent her.
Parks was in court and could not be reached Wednesday.
The attorney general’s office did not return calls in time for this story.
The federal indictment against Jeffrey Perry alleges he received 10 payments totaling $230,000 under false pretenses from two California victims who believed they were investing in the production or marketing of a cultured marble product.
If proved at trial, wire fraud is a violation of Title 18, Chapter 63, Section 1343 of the United States Code punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison.
Federal investigators believe Perry perpetrated a “Ponzi scheme” on his victims, using proceeds obtained from later “investors” to pay off earlier ones.
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