Hays County district clerk seeks to remove district attorney from office with lawsuit
The Hays County district clerk has filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of the county's district attorney, alleging that the DA has declined to prosecute certain types of felony drug possession cases.
According to the suit, filed by District Clerk Avrey Anderson, District Attorney Kelly Higgins has also said he will not prosecute doctors illegally treating transgender people or doctors illegally performing abortions.
Under a new Texas law that took effect Sept. 1, a district attorney can be removed from office for official misconduct if the district attorney adopts or enforces a policy of refusing to prosecute a class or type of criminal offense, according to the lawsuit.
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Higgins said Thursday he couldn't comment on pending litigation. He said, however, he could make a comment about how cases are handled at his office.
"The Hays County District Attorney’s Office does not have, and has never had, any policy regarding the prosecution of any class or type of crime," Higgins said in an email. "We review every case individually, on a case-by-case basis, and always have. There is no policy in writing, and no policy has ever been spoken in this regard."
Anderson said Thursday that Higgins campaigned on not prosecuting the crimes mentioned in the lawsuit. Those crimes include simple drug and cannabis possession offenses, according to the lawsuit.
They also include "illegal procedures committed by a licensed physician in the case that they are illegally treating transgenders" or "performing unlawful abortions (technically murder) under the law," the suit said.
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Anderson said he estimates that the district attorney's office "has most likely declined over 1,200 possession offenses for various 'reasons.'" The district clerk's office receives notifications of every offense that Higgins declines to prosecute, Anderson said.
"I did not bring these issues to Kelly Higgins' attention as he very well seems to have intended to not prosecute these crime," Anderson said in a text message.
Anderson said he doesn't think the district attorney's office has had any cases submitted to it about a transgender person receiving medical care.
The felony drug possession cases that Higgins has declined to prosecute involve cannabis, methamphetamine and cocaine, the lawsuit said.
"I fully support a woman's right to bodily autonomy, as well as a transgender person's right to bodily autonomy," Anderson said in a text message. "I also agree that the prosecutions of minor drug offenses have negatively impacted the justice system and the fairness thereof. This doesn't mean that I or any other elected official can personally undermine the laws that we swore to uphold or in the case of the District Attorney to enforce."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Hays County district clerk sues district attorney, seeks removal
