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The former three-term sheriff pleaded guilty to aggravated perjury, in a deal struck with district attorney pro tem Terry McDonald.
Charges that Ratcliff sexually assaulted his accuser in 1997 – when he was 15 – will be wiped away, if visiting Judge Mark Luitjen OKs the agreement.
Ratcliff, 50, lied to a grand jury in October. Ratcliff was asked if he had sex with his accuser when he “came to visit your house.”
“No sir,” Ratcliff said to the grand jury, according to court documents introduced Thursday.
He was also asked if he made unwanted or sexual advances toward his accuser.
“I did not,” Ratcliff told the grand jurors. Ratcliff was District Attorney Stephen Tyler’s chief of staff when he was indicted. He resigned soon after.
Ratcliff and his accuser had “an ongoing sexual relationship for years,” said George Filley III, Ratcliff’s lawyer.
They had sex after the accuser was an adult, and it was always consensual, Filley said.
Court documents don’t say when the sex Ratcliff lied about happened.
The felony admission equals justice, McDonald said.
“In a trial, it would have been a swearing match between (the accuser) and Ratcliff,” McDonald said after the hearing. “Ratcliff confessed to a felony.”
McDonald offered the plea because the primary charge – aggravated sexual assault – is suspected of happening in 1997, he said and there is no physical evidence, he said.
Ratcliff is a former sheriff who is in poor health, so a jury would not likely convict, McDonald said.
McDonald brought the deal to the defense soon after Tyler handed over all the evidence to the new prosecutor, Filley said.
Filley filed a discovery motion in February, which he said went long unfulfilled. It asked for records from a case in 1999 when Ratcliff’s accuser said a different man sexually assaulted him.
Court records show prosecutors subpoenaed the accuser as a witness in the 2000 indecency trial of Marvin Edward Hoelter. Hoelter was acquitted.
Filley contends Ratcliff’s accuser never showed up to testify, but that’s impossible to tell from the court records available Thursday.
The accuser talked about sexual abuse to Hope of South Texas in 1999, but “he doesn’t say a word about Ratcliff,” Filley said.
Nor did he talk about Ratcliff during meetings with counselors, which were mandated by probation for a 2003 felony drug charge, Filley said.
The man didn’t accuse Ratcliff until Victoria County Probation was ready to send him to jail after a string of failed rehab programs, Filley said.
The accuser is serving time in a correctional facility near San Antonio for violating his probation. He has about five months left on the sentence.
Even if Ratcliff and the younger man were entwined in a years-long affair, they showed no evidence of it Thursday. Ratcliff smiled and sucked on peppermint candies as he waited for his hearing. He didn’t look at his accuser. The 25-year-old man folded his lightly tattooed arms and sat in the back row of the courtroom. He left the courtroom calmly and quietly after the agreement was announced.
If Ratcliff successfully finishes 10 years of probation, he won’t pay a fine or go to prison, under the agreement. The charges will remain on his record, but it won’t show a final conviction.
“It’s never wiped clean,” Filley said.
If Ratcliff violates probation, a judge could sentence him to a maximum of 10 years in prison and fine him $10,000.
The bargain bars Ratcliff from visiting Internet chat rooms or looking at online pornography.
Luitjen will announce his ruling at 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 15.
Leslie Wilber is a reporter for the Victoria Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6521 or e-mail her at lwilber@vicad.com or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com