TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas – The special prosecutor who recently secured an indictment of Gov. Rick Perry (R) before a grand jury in Democrat-leaning Travis County, Texas has a long history of defending questionable characters.

Mike McCrum, a San Antonio defense attorney, was appointed to lead an investigation into Perry after an anti-Perry group alleged the long-time governor abused the power of his office.

Prior to entering the national spotlight with his crusade against Perry, McCrum used his law practice to defend a serial child killer, a man found guilty of sex trafficking involving minors, individuals tied to public corruption cases, and an Iranian-American doctor stripped of his citizenship on fraud charges.

Tommy Lynn Sells was executed in Texas in April of this year after being convicted of killing a 13-year old girl in 1999. But Sells was subsequently linked to 17 killings, and himself claimed to have killed dozens. McCrum defended Sells when he was accused of murdering Mary Beatrice Perez, a 9 year-old San Antonio girl. Sells ultimately admitted to the brutal murder of the girl, saying he killed her because “No witness. No trouble.”

A San Antonio Express-News story detailing Sells’ impeding execution said that McCrum claimed Sells felt sorry for his actions. “McCrum said that despite his crimes, Sells did feel compassion for the families of the victims,” the paper reported.

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In 2007 and 2008, McCrum defended Timothy Michael Gereb in a federal case that charged Gereb with smuggling underage girls to Texas from Mexico to start a prostitution ring. The federal criminal complaint outlined in detail Gereb’s work to obtain the sex slaves. At one point, Gereb pulled a gun on the victims and told them he would kill them if they tried to escape.

Prior to pleading guilty in the federal trafficking case, Gereb was convicted in 1997 for indecency with a child. McCrum, however, argued that was irrelevant to Gereb’s sex trafficking charge 10 years later. “A psychiatrist recognized as an expert in (sexual offenders) by the state for years examined and counseled Gereb for a lengthy period of time and determined he is not a sexual predator or a pedophile,” McCrum told the San Antonio Express-News.

Gereb is now registered for life as a sex offender.

Last June, a federal jury convicted a Texas doctor and his wife on charges of fraud and violations of the Iranian embargo. Court records show a complex case in which an Iranian-American doctor and his wife sought to inappropriately charge Medicaid for services provided, backdated contributions to a charity to obtain a tax benefit, and had some or all of their contributions to the charity sent to Iran.

McCrum defended the doctor and participated in the wife’s defense. The Associated Press quoted McCrum depicting the couple as deeply generous, “Obviously and ironically, the very nature of the financial giving … were borne from Dr. Lahiji’s intensive desire to give of himself and property he owns to help people who are not in a position to help themselves.”

A federal judge stripped the doctor of his citizenship and ordered the couple to return to Iran.

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Influential Democratic mega-donor and Texas lawyer Mikel Watts employed McCrum on his defense team during a federal probe that appears to have not yet concluded. Watts’ office was raided by federal agents in 2013 as part of an investigation into how he and his firm handled a massive lawsuit they filed against BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.

Watts has given $7.4 million to Democratic candidates according to mySanAntonio.com. The publication also reported that in a settlement letter Watts once sent, he boasted he would get his way because the court was comprised of “good Democrats.”

“[T]his court is comprised of six justices, all of whom are good Democrats. The Chief Justice, Hon. Rogelio Valdez, was recently elected with our firm’s heavy support.”

McCrum’s motto on his law office website reads: “When you’re standing alone, I’ll stand with you.”

An earlier Media Trackers report noted that McCrum defended disgraced Bexar County Sheriff Ralph Lopez and a local San Antonio businessman tied to a bribing scandal involving the San Antonio City Council. In that second case, McCrum declared that his client, Jack Pytel, was an “honest” and “honorable” man.

“This whole thing is just out of character for Jack. Jack’s an honest man, an honorable man, and it’s inconceivable that the government would suspect him of bribery, much less accuse him,” McCrum told The Dallas Morning News.

Pytel ultimately pled guilty to the bribery charges.

Federal documents from Gereb case.

Authored by Brian Sikma