DALLAS – A new judge has been assigned to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s criminal case after Paxton successfully petitioned to have the case’s original judge removed.
Harris County District Judge Robert Johnson was assigned to the case in mid-June. The case had originally been filed in Collin County and assigned to Judge George Gallagher, but prosecutors requested Gallagher transfer the case to Harris County. They felt it would be impossible to get a fair trial in Collin County because Paxton has lived and worked there for several years, so he had developed several well-known political allies who, prosecutors argued, have been actively working to derail the case against Paxton.
Paxton argued against the change, but Gallagher agreed that there may be an ethical problem with keeping the case in Collin County so in April moved it to Harris, reasoning that both the prosecution and defense were based out of Harris County, so a fair trial should be possible there. With the change in venue came a change in trial date, which changed from May to September.
Upon the release of Gallagher’s decision, Paxton began pushing to have the judge removed, arguing the judge was trying to rig the case against him. Paxton’s opportunity to take Gallagher off the case came from the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 31.09, which requires both parties to a case to agree to have a judge follow the case when it is transferred to a different jurisdiction. Paxton, therefore, refused to sign the required paperwork, effectively blocking Gallagher from continuing to preside over his case.
Prosecutors challenged Paxton’s refusal, but Dallas’ 5th Court of Appeals found in its written opinion that “absent effective application of article 31.09, respondent may not continue to preside over the cases… Relator has unequivocally stated that he did not consent to respondent continuing to preside over the cases or otherwise acting in accordance with article 31.09, and no written consent appears in our record. Accordingly, under the plain language of the statute, respondent is without authority to continue to preside over the cases and is also without authority to issue orders or directives maintaining the case files in Collin County.”
As part of the appellate court’s decision to remove Gallagher, all orders issued by the judge after his April 11 ruling to change venues are also void. Therefore, the September trial date is no longer valid, and Johnson will have to set a new date.
Prosecutors appealed the 5th Court’s decision to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, but that court refused, without comment, to hear the case, allowing the appellate court’s decision to stand.
Paxton is facing three felony charges - two counts of first-degree securities fraud and one count of third-degree failure to register. Paxton is being accused of having misled investors, encouraging them to invest in Servergy - more than $600,000 in total - without revealing that he was profiting from those investments. Prosecutors also allege that he misrepresented himself as an investor, and failed to register as an investment adviser.
Paxton has pled not guilty, but if convicted, he can face up to 99 years in prison.