When an officer swears to his/her affidavit for a search warrant in front of a Judge is that considered an official proceeding for purposes of PC 37.03 the aggravated perjury statute?

To me, on instinct it seems like it could be "connected with" an official proceeding, particularly if there is a criminal case that resulted from the search warrant. If there is no case that resulted from it against someone else, I am not certain that it is "connected with" an official proceeding, much less a part of one, since no judicial determination of rights/duties/guilt was made.

You could look at chapter 36 and possibly analogize the terms "adjudicatory proceeding" and "official proceeding." Adjudicatory proceeding is defined; official proceeding is not. However, "official proceeding" is used in that chapter as well. I am not certain whether the terms were intended to be analogous, but the way the statute is constructed it reads to me that way.

Would tampering with a governmental record also apply to your facts?

I believe that official proceedings can encompass other non-court proceedings such as commissioners court meetings, hearings before the legislature, etc., so it may be a broader term than an adjudicatory proceeding.

I can't imagine why not. Really, that is the whole point to have a detached and neutral magistrate evaluate the sworn testimony to determine probable cause for the warrant. CCP art 18.01 requires the procedure. But note it is not usually conducted in an open court. Let me see what I can find.

We prosecuted two police officers in Harris County for Aggravated Perjury when they lied (one did this several years before the other one decided to do it) and both went to the penitentiary. Both fabricated facts to get narcotics search warrants and then presented the affidavits and warrants to judges who, believing the facts in the affidavit to be true, issued search warrants )an "official proceeding").

This might provide some assistance: In Lumpkins v. S., No. 13-08-00665-CR (Tex. App. Corpus Christi, 2000), 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 7679 (unpub), the court looked at the meaning of "official proceedings."

Thank you all for the help. My first impression was that it was an official proceeding, but I knew I was not the first one to deal with this situation. It is always good to know it has been done before.