Let's look at the timeline of Attorney General Ken Paxton's legal troubles
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Less than two months after he was acquitted of wrongdoing in his impeachment trial, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will be in a Houston courtroom for a hearing in a long-delayed criminal case.
Paxton faces charges for securities fraud. It's a case that goes back several years.
Timeline of events in Paxton's criminal case
April 30, 2014
- The first sign of trouble for Paxton came in the spring of 2014. At the time, the then-state senator was running for attorney general. He was reprimanded by the Texas Securities Board and fined $1,000 for soliciting investment clients without being registered, as required by law.
- Paxton admitted wrongdoing, but chalked it up to administrative oversight.
November 4, 2014
- He was elected attorney general in Nov. 2014, but the fallout from the securities violation didn't end there.
July 28, 2015
- Less than seven months on the job as attorney general, a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton on three felony charges: two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a third-degree charge of not registering with the state securities board.
- The most serious allegation claimed he encouraged investment in Servergy Inc., a tech startup that later became the target of an SEC investigation.
August 3, 2015
- Less than a week later, Paxton turned himself in. His mugshot made headlines.
- The attorney general was allowed to be photographed without a towel around his shoulders. At the time, the Collin County Sheriff's Office covered the shoulders of arrestees with towels, in an effort to make defendants appear in a neutral light. But the Tarrant County judge who initially oversaw the case told the Sheriff's Office to skip the towel due to the high-profile nature of the case and to protect Paxton's right to a fair trial.
October 1, 2020
- In the fall of 2020, as legal back and forth held up the state's securities fraud case, Paxton found himself at the center of another scandal. One that would end up being the catalyst for the impeachment investigation a few years later. The attorney general's top deputies back then went to the FBI and accused him of bribery and abuse of office. They were ultimately fired.
- It's now been more than eight years since Paxton was indicted, and still, there's been no trial. But here's what has happened in that time:
- The case has been moved from Tarrant County, to Collin County, to Harris County.
- It has been assigned to four different judges.
- There's been a lot of legal back and forth over how much the special prosecutors assigned to the case should be paid. They say they haven't been paid since Jan. 2016.
So, what's next?
Every one of these events has created delays and held up the trial from starting. But now that the impeachment trial is over, the case is moving forward. In a hearing scheduled for Oct. 30, a trial date could be set.
Along with this case, Paxton is still facing a whistleblower lawsuit. The attorney general also remains under federal investigation. He has denied wrongdoing.
