HOUSTON — Texas’ highest criminal court ruled Wednesday that the securities fraud case against now-suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton’s should remain in Houston, settling a key issue in the 8-year-old case as Paxton faces an impeachment trial in the Texas Senate this summer.
In a 6-3 ruling, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, made up of nine Republicans and no Democrats, overturned lower-court decisions that said Paxton’s trial had been improperly moved from Collin County, where he lives, to Harris County. They said the trial judge had lost jurisdiction over the matter.
"The standards we use to judge will inevitably be applied against us. Thus, even the noblest of goals, no matter how righteous, cannot justify improper means, Judge Bert Richardson wrote for the majority. "Today we fulfill our duty by upholding our Constitution’s rule of law and affirming the wisdom of its framers."
However, the Texas Constitution and state law protected the judge’s authority over the case, the court ruled.
“We’re gratified but not surprised that the Court recognized that this defendant must stand trial before a Harris County jury and a judge who will follow the law,” prosecutor Brian Wice said.
Paxton’s defense attorney for his impeachment trial -- but not the Collin County case -- said they're not fazed by the decision.
“Today’s decision doesn’t matter. This case is a loser and that’s why the so-called prosecutors have continued to delay this case for almost a decade now," Attorney Tony Buzbee said in a statement. "This case has been before the Court of Criminal Appeals for nearly two years and the timing of today’s decision was no coincidence, specifically timed and designed to create maximum negative press and political damage to the attorney general and targeted to hurt him with the Senate.”
In 2015, a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton on two counts of securities fraud, a first-degree felony with a punishment of up to 99 years in prison, and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators, a third-degree felony with a maximum 10 years in prison.
The securities fraud charges related to Paxton’s efforts in 2011 to solicit investors in Servergy Inc. without disclosing that the McKinney-based tech company was paying him to promote its stock.
Paxton has said he did nothing wrong and dismissed the charges as motivated by his political rivals.
Prosecutors were able to remove the case from Collin County in 2017, arguing that they could not get a fair trial in a county that Paxton had represented during his 10 years in the Texas House and two years in the state Senate.
Paxton’s lawyers, arguing that the judge who ordered the case to Harris County had lost jurisdiction over the case, succeeded in sending the case back to Collin County in 2020, leading to appeals from prosecutors that resulted in Wednesday’s ruling.
Paxton was suspended from acting as attorney general when the Texas House voted to impeach him late last month.
This is a developing story.
This story comes from The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans - and engages with them - about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.