Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was indicted 5 years ago. He still hasn't gone to trial. Read our timeline covering delays and side battles in the long-running securities fraud case against Paxton. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton narrowly won reelection in 2018.
If convicted, Paxton could face up to 99 years in prison. Prosecutors in the suit claim Paxton persuaded investors to buy stock in a technology firm without disclosing he would be compensated for it. He was a member of the Texas House at the time.
A panel of three justices ruled Thursday that the trial for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ’s felony fraud charges should be in Collin County-where he lives-instead of Harris County, after a yearslong back-and-forth over where his criminal case should be heard.
Since the case began, it has been delayed by side battle after side battle, including a still-unresolved dispute over how much to pay the special prosecutors handling the case and a yearslong dispute over where Paxton should be tried.
The case was originally to be in Collin County, but prosecutors argued that having the trial there would be unfair because of Paxton's political ties in that region. Paxton represented Collin County in the Texas Legislature for years, and now his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, represents the region.
Prosecutors in the suit claim Paxton persuaded investors to buy stock in a technology firm without disclosing he would be compensated for it. He was a member of the Texas House at the time. Paxton denies any wrongdoing and says the accusations are politically motivated.
The case was moved to Harris County from Collin County after prosecutors argued that having the trial there would be unfair because of Paxton's political ties in that region. The lawsuit has loomed over Ken Paxton for nearly his entire time as attorney general. Miguel Gutierrez Jr./. The Texas Tribune.
Paxton denied the allegations. Paxton’s legal troubles have been met with fierce criticism from his political opponents. And they will likely be used as ammunition during the upcoming election for attorney general.
Angela Morris. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has won arguments that his criminal trial for felony securities fraud charges should happen in his hometown of McKinney instead of Houston.
A judge in Houston sided with Paxton in June 2020, ruling the case should go back to McKinney, but the prosecutors appealed. The prosecutors, Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer of Houston, plan to ask the full First Court to reconsider the three-judge panel’s ruling. Book.
The judge had transferred the case to Houston in March 2017.
A concurring and dissenting opinion by Justice Gordon Goodman said that he agreed with the majority’s decision that the visiting judge’s assignment had expired, and that the judge hadn’t had the authority to transfer the case to Harris County.
The prosecutors counter ed that the visiting judge did have the power to transfer the case; a court of appeals in Dallas had backed that up, and Paxton had challenged the issue too late. Among other things, the First Court ruled that the visiting judge’s assignment order said his assignment would end Jan. 2, 2017.