Texas AG Ken Paxton Files Six Motions To Quash Indictment
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MCKINNEY (CBSDFW.COM) - The legal team for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday it filed six motions to quash the three indictments in the case coupled with four pretrial applications for writ of habeas corpus.
A motion to quash an indictment is filed where the indictment is believed to be technically defective, whether such defect be the failure to plead the accusations correctly, to indict the case within the applicable statute of limitations, to empanel the grand jury properly, or any one of a number of other grounds.
Similarly, a defendant may raise certain issues in a pretrial writ of habeas corpus, which, if meritorious, would bar prosecution or conviction. Pretrial writs of habeas corpus are frequently used to set forth constitutional infirmities and problems with a prosecution.
Specifically, Attorney General Paxton filed the following motions and applications for writ of habeas corpus:
MOTIONS
1. Motion to Quash Indictments Because Judge Oldner's Cumulative Actions Compromised the Integrity of the Indictment Process
2. Motion to Quash Indictment Because of Attorney Pro Tem's Violation of Grand Jury Info and Secrecy
3. Motion to Quash 416-81913-2015 for Failure to Commence Prosecution within Statute of Limitations
4. Motion to Quash Indictment 416-81913-2015
5. Motion to Quash Indictments 416-82148-2015, 416-82149-2015
6. Motion to Quash Indictments as Prosecution is Improperly Brought
7. Petition to Disclose Grand Jury Proceedings
8. Motion for Leave to File Additional Pretrial Motions
WRITS
9. First Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus as the Statute is Not One under Which Paxton Can Be Charged
10. Second Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus Based on Offensive Charge Being Unconstitutionally Vague
11. Third Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus Based Upon Improper Impanelment of Grand Jury
12. Fourth Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus Based Upon the Language in the Indictment Relating to the Offense is Unconstitutionally Overbroad and Vague
"These motions and applications for writ of habeas corpus bring to the Court's attention serious matters related to this prosecution," Co-lead counsel Philip H. Hilder said. "We have raised a variety of issues that are ripe to be raised at this stage of the proceedings."
On a related note, Attorney General Paxton announced Monday he earlier retained J. Mitchell Little, a partner in Scheef & Stone's Collin County law office, to assist the legal team on the state securities law aspects of the case and whose work is manifest in a number of Monday's filings.
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