Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton to look in Houston court docket listening to for his securities fraud trial

HOUSTON — Embattled Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton, awaiting the beginning of a separate impeachment trial, is about to look in a Houston courtroom Thursday to debate his almost decade-long delayed trial on securities fraud fees.

It’s unclear if any resolution can be made throughout the court docket listening to on when Paxton may lastly go to trial on felony fees of defrauding traders in a tech startup. He was indicted in 2015.

The case is again in a Houston courtroom after the Texas Courtroom of Prison Appeals upheld a call final month by a choose who initially oversaw the case to maneuver the proceedings out of Paxton’s hometown close to Dallas. Paxton has spent years combating to maintain the trial in Collin County, the place he maintains extensive help amongst GOP activists and his spouse, Angela Paxton, is a state senator.

Paxton was scheduled to look in court docket throughout the listening to, mentioned Philip Hilder, considered one of Paxton’s attorneys. Paxton has not often appeared in court docket for hearings within the securities fraud case.

Hilder declined to touch upon what could be mentioned throughout the standing convention listening to however mentioned he anticipated it to be “comparatively brief.”

Brian Wice, a particular prosecutor who was appointed to the securities fraud case after Paxton was indicted, declined to remark.

The listening to can be earlier than state District Choose Andrea Beall, a Democrat.

The indictments accuse Paxton of defrauding traders in a Dallas-area tech startup by not disclosing he was being paid by the corporate, referred to as Servergy, to recruit them. The indictments have been handed up simply months after Paxton was sworn in as Texas’ high legislation enforcement officer.

A mess of causes have delayed the trial, together with authorized debate over whether or not the case must be tried within the Dallas space or Houston, modifications during which choose would deal with the case and a protracted battle over how a lot the particular prosecutors ought to receives a commission.

If convicted of the securities fraud fees, Paxton faces as much as 99 years in jail.

Thursday’s listening to comes as Paxton faces elimination from workplace following his historic impeachment by the state Home in Might. A trial within the Texas Senate is about to start Sept. 5.

The case is among the many 20 articles of impeachment the Texas Home of Representatives introduced in opposition to Paxton. Different impeachment fees encompass Paxton’s relationship with Nate Paul, an Austin actual property developer who has been indicted on fees of creating false statements to banks to acquire greater than $170 million in loans.

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