Paxton looks to dismiss securities fraud charges, says ‘right to speedy trial’ was violated

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (Nexstar) — Attorney General Ken Paxton’s legal team is asking a Harris County district judge to dismiss his securities fraud charges, claiming his right to a speedy trial has been violated in the case that has gone on for more than eight years.

His team filed a motion to dismiss Paxton’s indictments on Tuesday, which was the deadline for pretrial motions. Paxton is facing two felony indictments that allege he broke state securities regulations and failed to disclose stock transactions to the state. That case has been delayed since 2015. The trial is currently set for April 15.

In the filing, Paxton’s lawyers argued the delay has been “excessive.”

Shortly after the Republican was first elected to the Office of Attorney General, a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in 2015 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 charges stem from 2011 when Paxton allegedly sought out investors in Servergy Inc. — a tech company based in his hometown of McKinney — without saying he was being paid by Servergy to promote its stock.

Delays in the securities fraud case

Paxton’s security fraud case was originally set in Collin County, where Paxton lives, but in 2017 prosecutors began a fight to change the venue to Harris County. They argued that finding potential impartial jurors and getting a fair trial would not be possible in the area that Paxton had represented politically for 12 years. Before becoming attorney general, he was a state representative for 10 years and a state senator for two years.

The fight over a change in venue went on for years. Paxton’s team successfully got the case back to Collin County in 2020 after arguing the judge who had sent the case to Harris County no longer had jurisdiction in Paxton’s case. Prosecutors appealed and ultimately got the case back to Harris County after the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals ruled in their favor last July.

The battle over which county his case would be heard in was only one factor of several that caused years of delays. Issues with six-figure payments for the prosecutors in the case lengthened the time of the appeal, and additionally, defense lawyers for Paxton took issue with the grand jury procedure in his indictment and had asked to get the charges dismissed altogether.

“The length of the delay was excessive and weighs heavily against the State and in favor of Paxton,” the attorney general’s lawyers wrote in the court filings. “Most of the delays were due to the State seeking to transfer the case from Collin County, opposing moving it back to Collin County, and more than any other cause, the pro tems seeking attorney’s fees. None of these
events or causes were Paxton’s fault.”

Prosecutor Brian Wice declined to comment, but said his team plans to file a brief response to Paxton’s motion soon. The state did not file any pre-trial motions in this case.

A hearing for the pre-trial motions is slated for next Friday, Feb. 16.

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