Courthouse News by Cameron Langford 2/16/2024
Paxton's defense team expressed confidence Friday that the attorney general will be acquitted of charges that have dogged him since 2015.A Texas judge on Friday rejected state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s motion to dismiss his securities fraud indictments, setting the stage for his long-anticipated trial.
Serving his third term as the Lone Star State’s chief law enforcement officer, Paxton, 61, moved on Feb. 6 to dismiss his indictments on two first-degree felony charges of securities fraud and a third-degree felony charge of failing to register with state securities regulators.
If convicted, Paxton faces up to 99 years in prison.
Paxton is accused of fraudulently selling stock of the software company Servergy Inc. to two investors in July 2011 without disclosing that he would be paid commissions.
Paxton also did not disclose that he himself had not invested in the now-defunct firm — though he touted it as a great company.
A Republican and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, Paxton claimed the eight-year delay since he was indicted by a Collin County grand jury in August 2015 — shortly after he first took office as AG — had violated his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.
Wearing a dark blue suit with stripes of the tiny words “not guilty” stitched in white thread, Paxton attorney Dan Cogdell blamed special prosecutors Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer for delaying the case by disputing the pay rate they are receiving for their legal work.
“That is what this food fight has been all about," Cogdell told Harris County 185th District Court Judge Andrea Beall, a Democrat. "Never in my 42 years of practicing law have I seen a case paused by a fee dispute."
Based on a pay rate of $300 per hour, the Collin County Commissioners Court — the elected executive board of the North Texas county where Paxton was indicted — approved paying a first bill of $242,000 submitted by the special prosecutors for pretrial work in January 2016. At the time, that legal team included Wice, Schaffer and Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube, a third special prosecutor who has since withdrawn from the case.
More:
https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-denies-texas-ag-ken-paxtons-bid-to-head-off-his-criminal-trial/