Texas Lt. Gov. Dewhurst Caught On Tape

Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst was recorded asking the police to release a family member who’d been arrested for shoplifting, arguing that “she’s the sweetest woman in the world,” and that he’s the Lieutenant Governor, and so there must have been some kind of misunderstanding.

After repeatedly identifying himself, Dewhurst explained that “apparently a bag involving $57 worth of groceries wasn’t scanned” at a local Kroger’s supermarket, resulting in a “mistaken charge” against the wife of Dewhurst’s nephew. Dewhurst asked how to procure the woman’s release, and said that the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety would soon be calling the sergeant to back up Dewhurst’s story.

“I would like to find out what I need to do to get her out of jail, post bond, whatever, because this is the sweetest woman in the world,” Dewhurst says on the recording, which the Allen Police Department released today. He soon adds the apparently relevant fact that “every year, I’m the number one pick of all of the law enforcement agencies within Texas.”

The lieutenant governor, who played a key role in ending Wendy Davis’s filibuster in the state house earlier this summer, didn’t seem phased when news of his phone call got out. His office said that he “acted as a concerned family member” when he made the call, and reminded everyone that Dewhurst “reiterat[ed] multiple times in the full conversation that law enforcement follow their normal protocols and procedures,” which begs the question of why he called the police to begin with.

This might appear to be a case of a powerful figure pulling their weight to help a loved one, but if the initial reports are correct, the loved one in question was married to a guy who’s mom is Dewhurst’s step-sister. At that point, does it really count as nepotism?

Photo: Getty Images