American-Statesman Staff
Attorneys representing two women who were in the car that police say was rear-ended Sunday by an intoxicated Travis County prosecutor said Thursday that they were injured in the crash.
The driver suffered a concussion and one of two passengers the Meyerson Law Firm is representing has complained of pain, the attorneys said.
The women, the attorneys said, also say that Travis County Assistant District Attorney Brandon Grunewald accused them of causing the collision and tried to convince them not to call police.
The claim comes after Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg issued a statement about the crash Tuesday, saying that “currently there are no injuries reported from the collision.”
“They were injured,” attorney Jeff Meyerson said. “It wasn’t a love tap.”
Authorities say Grunewald, 33, rear-ended his Land Rover into a Mini Cooper that was stopped along the southbound service road of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) near Barton Skyway in Southwest Austin. He was booked into the Travis County Jail shortly after the wreck, which occurred around 3:30 p.m., and was released several hours later, jail records show.
Grunewald was charged with driving while intoxicated, nearly four months to the day after Lehmberg was arrested for the same offense.
She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, though she was released in about half that time for good behavior.
She said Tuesday that her office does not typically fire employees for a first-time DWI offense and that she was going to wait until all the facts were known before making any decisions about Grunewald’s employment.
“We have to look closely at each case separately because each case is different,” she said in a phone interview. “We look at the offense, criminal history, performance issues.”
Meyerson said his firm hasn’t filed a lawsuit on the women’s behalf and that there’s no need to file a suit at this time because there doesn’t appear to be a liability dispute.