Former Victoria Sheriff avoids sexual assault charge by pleading to perjury

[Michael] Ratcliff [former Sheriff and aide to Victoria DA, Steve Tyler,] was indicted in October. He was accused of offering the boy a swap of sexual favors for a nicer cell in the hospital wing when the boy was an inmate. Ratcliff told the grand jury that he didn't make unwanted or sexual advances toward his accuser.

It's always the cover up. Never the crime. Except. How could Michael Ratcliff be cleared of assaulting a teenage boy who had been in his custody? The Victoria Advocate wonders if the special prosecutor is soft on crime.

What many didn’t expect was for [Terry] McDonald, the San Antonio special prosecutor, to offer a plea for a charge that did not appear in the original indictments.

In October, a grand jury indicted Ratcliff, a former sheriff, on five counts – including aggravated sexual assault of a teenage boy and of criminal solicitation of a minor.

But McDonald offered Ratcliff an aggravated perjury plea on Thursday, and Ratcliff accepted it.

Maybe the operative wisdom is 'special treatment' for those in power.