HOUSTON — A Harris County district judge has sided with special prosecutors in the Ken Paxton criminal case in their fight to get paid.
It’s a major development in a legal battle that has delayed the Texas Attorney General’s felony securities fraud case for nearly eight years.
Special prosecutors accused officials in Collin County of trying to “derail” the prosecution by defunding it.
That suburban Dallas county is home to the technology company Paxton is accused of soliciting investors for without telling them he was being paid to do so.
It’s also where Paxton owns a home and enjoys deep support.
According to a new filing to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Andrea Beall ruled Tuesday that special prosecutors Brice Wice and Kent Schaffer should be paid $300 an hour for their work in 2016. That’s the rate the two were promised when they took the job in 2015.
Collin County last paid them $242,025 in January 2016 before Paxton challenged the rate.
"Judge Beall’s well-reasoned decision clearly falls within the zone of her inherent and virtually unlimited judicial discretion,” said Wice and Schaffer, in a statement to KHOU 11 Thursday afternoon. "We’re confident that the Court of Criminal Appeals will enforce her lawful order with all deliberate speed and finally put an end to Collin County’s incessant, transparent, and purely political ploy to derail Ken Paxton’s prosecution by defunding it."
Both sides discussed the pay issue during a court hearing Monday in Houston, where Paxton was present but did not speak in the courtroom or to the media.
“Once again, the Special Prosecutors are making clear that their prosecution of Ken Paxton is all about money and not justice,” said Dan Cogdell and Philip Hilder, Lead Counsel for Ken Paxton, in an emailed statement to KHOU 11 Thursday afternoon. “Not content with having already received $242,000, an amount far exceeding fee guidelines, the special prosecutors are asking for a “do-over” in their new appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which previously disallowed the prosecutors’ request for another $200,000 back in 2019. All the meanwhile, Ken Paxton just wants his day in court. Yet, the Special Prosecutors seem content pushing that day further back with its dilatory sideshow of an appeal.”
In a post Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Collin County Judge Chris Hill wrote in response to Judge Beall’s ruling, “Nevermind that both the 5th COA and the Texas CCA ruled in our favor against these fees. Good luck with that.”
Paxton has pleaded not guilty to two counts of securities fraud, which carry penalties of 5 to 99 years in prison, and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators, which carries a penalty of 2 to 10 years in prison.
On Monday Judge Beall set Paxton’s trial date for April 15 in Houston.
These charges are separate from the Attorney General’s September impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, where he was acquitted on 16 articles and had four other articles dismissed.