Houston Chronicle by Taylor Goldenstein June 19, 2019
The top criminal court in Texas dealt a blow to the special prosecutors who are pressing felony charges against Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday, a new wrinkle in a securities fraud case that has already stretched across four years and is far from resolved.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday declined to reconsider an earlier ruling that allowed a $2,000 limit on how much the special prosecutors can be paid for pretrial work. The court did not provide an explanation for its denial. The case now returns to a state district court in Harris County.
“We’re disappointed that the Court took six months to summarily deny our motion for rehearing without addressing any of the substantial legal issues it raised, something it routinely criticizes the courts of appeals for doing,†said Houston lawyer Brian Wice, who filed the appeal, in a statement Wednesday.
Wice declined to answer further questions, but the special prosecutors have hinted previously that they would drop the case if they are not paid for hundreds of hours of work already clocked at the $300 an hour rate originally promised to them — a move that would postpone Paxton’s trial even further.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Criminal-case-against-Attorney-General-Ken-Paxton-14018035.php
