SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Councilman Clayton Perry consumed 14 alcoholic beverages in a four-hour time span before his November head-on crash, according to an affidavit obtained by KSAT on Thursday.
The affidavit reveals new details about the Sunday, Nov. 6 incident, including that there is surveillance footage showing Perry consuming the beverages between 4:45 and 8:45 p.m. at a North Side bar before driving away alone.
Perry is facing charges of DWI and failure to stop and give information. He is currently on a temporary leave of absence from his District 10 position. Fellow council members issued a no-confidence vote but stopped short of formally calling on him to resign.
The affidavit states that Perry drove from the Evil Olive parking lot to a Bill Miller Bar-B-Q located across the street. The councilman got into the drive-thru line, didn’t order anything and remained at the window for about 10 minutes after being asked to leave by a staff member, the document states.
After driving away from the restaurant, Perry crashed his Jeep into a Honda Civic that was stopped at a red light at the intersection of Jones Maltsberger and Redland roads, investigators said.
The crash occurred less than 30 minutes after Perry left the bar.
Perry immediately left the scene and drove to his house, but a witness of the crash followed him and alerted police to his location, according to the affidavit.
That’s where a responding officer found Perry lying in his backyard and barely conscious. Perry denied driving home or being involved in a crash.
“He appears to be intoxicated based on the video of the interaction showing Perry to have lost the normal use of his mental and physical faculties,” according to the new affidavit.
Days after the crash, SAPD released the body camera video showing Perry’s encounter with police, but specific details leading up to that were still being sorted out by investigators.
The new affidavit, released after Perry was booked on a DWI charge Wednesday, was signed by a different officer than the one who initially responded to Perry’s house.
KSAT reached out to Perry for comment on Wednesday. He has not responded.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said Thursday that it had not launched an investigation into the bar but that it had not been ruled out.
Perry booked on second charge
San Antonio police had filed a DWI case against Perry earlier this month, but it was up to prosecutors whether to charge him. He was booked on Wednesday and was released on a $1,000 bond.
A first-time DWI charge is considered a Class B Misdemeanor, which carries a maximum fine of $3,000 and a six-month jail sentence.
Perry was already facing a Class B misdemeanor charge for failure to stop and give information after a crash that resulted in damages to a vehicle over $200.
Perry turned himself into the Bexar County Courthouse on Nov. 10 for the failure to stop and give information charge. He was released shortly after posting a $1,000 bond.
Police said they needed more details to charge Perry with DWI.
A redacted SAPD report obtained by KSAT Investigates last month mostly focused on the crash and what happened after.
The report states that the SAPD officer found Perry lying in his backyard moaning with a cut on his head and smelling of alcohol. Perry had trouble sitting up and when he did get up he was unsteady on his feet and was swaying, records show.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg has said if details in the police report are true that Perry should resign.
Perry told reporters on Nov. 10 that the mayor “can say what he wants.”
San Antonio City Council called a special meeting on Nov. 14 in which they issued Perry a vote of “no confidence,” scrapping calls for him to resign.
Perry instead took a temporary leave of absence on Nov. 14. For the time being, he is replaced by Mike Gallagher, who previously represented District 10 from 2014 to 2017.
Perry said he would use the time away from council to take “the appropriate measures as determined by medical professionals to ensure this will never, never happen again. I commit wholeheartedly to whatever course of action or rehabilitation they recommend.”
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