Matthews’ attorney says he’ll beat perjury charges

Thomas Egan, the attorney for Montgomery County Commissioner James Matthews says his client will be exonerated of perjury charges leveled by a grand jury yesterday.

Matthews is charged with lying to grand jury in denying he had a business relationship with a title insurance firm that got county business.

The grand jury report says that a mortgage company Matthews was president of did business with the firm, and Matthews was shareholder in a subsidiary of the firm with the county contract.

Egan said that in answering questions at his grand jury appearance, Matthews was focused on whether he was in a position to profit from the county contract. Egan said prosecutors found no evidence of that.

“They were looking to see whether commissioner Matthews was involved in any kind of profiteering, any kind of campaign mismanagement of funds,” Egan said. “The best they could come up with during the entire presentment is one count of perjury and one count of false swearing.”

Egan said Matthews was shaken by the charges.

“Commissioner Matthews is personally devastated,” Egan said. “He’s angry that it has occurred. He is embarrassed, both personally and professionally.”

Egan says Matthews believes the investigation was politically motivated, and he’ll prove his innocence in court.