SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio City Councilman Clayton Perry drank more than 14 alcoholic beverages and repeatedly professed his love for a teenage drive-thru cashier shortly before crashing his Jeep into another vehicle and fleeing the scene last fall, prosecution records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
The records, which include a 47-page prosecution guide and audio interviews with witnesses to Perry’s behavior the night of Nov. 6, were released by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office following a public records request from KSAT.
Perry, who is not seeking re-election to his District 10 position, pleaded no contest last month to driving while intoxicated and failure to stop and provide information charges in exchange for one year of deferred adjudication.
If Perry, 67, successfully completes this special type of probation, the charges against him will be dismissed, and he will avoid a conviction. However, the criminal cases will still show up on his record.
The records obtained by KSAT provide the most thorough timeline, to date, of Perry’s actions before crashing his Jeep Wrangler head-on into a Honda Civic at Jones Maltsberger Road and Redland Road before fleeing to his home.
Surveillance footage obtained by San Antonio police showed Perry drinking seven beers, six shots and a mixed drink, as well as finishing a vodka drink left behind by another patron inside the Evil Olive before leaving the bar in the 2900 block of Thousand Oaks Drive just before 9 p.m.
The video evidence contradicts previous comments from Perry’s criminal defense attorney, David Christian.
Christian argued in court during Perry’s April 14 sentencing that Perry actually had about half of what police accused him of having drunk.
Reached via text message on Wednesday, Christian said he would reach out to his client to see if he had any comment on the release of records.
Multiple employees of Evil Olive identified Perry as being at the bar the evening of the crash, describing him as a regular who often walks out on his bar tabs without paying.
Perry, however, did pay for his drinks the evening of the crash, signing two separate bar tabs, records show.
Surveillance footage showed Perry staggering and swaying while at the bar, the records confirm.
Perry, according to charging paperwork, then drove across the street to Bill Miller BBQ and entered the drive-thru line.
A 17-year-old cashier told SAPD investigators Perry pulled up to the drive-thru window without ordering and wanted the food ordered by the customers in line behind him.
“All of a sudden he kept on saying, ‘I love you. I’m here just to see you.’ And I’m stunned,” the teen told an SAPD detective during a taped interview released to KSAT.
She said Perry also extended both of his arms out of the rolled-down window of his Jeep.
The teen told police Perry appeared “really drunk” and that his eyes were only halfway open.
“He was slurring on his words. Like, he couldn’t even tell me what he was doing. He didn’t know what was going on,” a Bill Miller BBQ manager told police in a separate taped interview released to KSAT.
She said she took over at the drive-thru window after Perry made the teenage cashier feel really uncomfortable.
The manager told police that Perry attempted to hand her his keys and wallet.
The manager later called 911 and told the call taker it was not safe for Perry to be driving.
Perry is shown on security footage driving away from the restaurant around 9:03 p.m.
She was audibly shaken up after the detective informed her Perry was involved in a hit-and-run crash minutes after leaving the drive-thru line.
The passenger in the vehicle hit by Perry’s Jeep said it immediately backed up after the crash and drove away.
She later shared with police a short cell phone video clip she recorded of the Jeep fleeing from the scene.
An eyewitness to the crash who followed Perry from the scene said he saw the Jeep “blow through a stop sign” on Redland Road, near an elementary school, before crashing into the garage of Perry’s home.
The records also reveal that an SAPD detective attempting to get a search warrant signed was denied from seeing a city magistrate and instead had to go to the Bexar County Jail to get a judge to sign the paperwork.
SAPD investigators then seized Perry’s Jeep and detailed its condition, which showed it had damage to its front bumper.
Investigators calculated Perry’s approximate blood alcohol content, using the Widmark Formula, as being .253 when he walked out of the bar and got into his Jeep.
That BAC is more than three times the legal limit to drive a vehicle.
Perry was arrested days after the crash on a misdemeanor charge of failure to stop and provide information.
That same day, SAPD officials released some officer body-worn camera footage showing a disheveled and disoriented Perry in the backyard of his home suffering from a head injury.
SAPD, to date, has not released additional footage of the incident and this week notified KSAT that it intends to ask the Texas Attorney General’s Office to withhold additional records of its investigation of Perry.
Perry announced days after his arrest that he was taking a leave of absence from his city council duties.
He was then booked on a misdemeanor DWI warrant in late December.
Perry returned from his leave of absence in January after being away from council for about two months.
He then announced in February that he would not seek re-election but noted that it would not be the end of his public service career.
Perry did not respond to a call seeking comment Wednesday.