Hecht settles ethics case, agrees to pay lower fine

AUSTIN — Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht has ended an ethics dispute that languished in a state court for nearly seven years, agreeing to pay a substantially reduced fine to settle charges that he broke state campaign finance laws.

The settlement, made public in court documents Wednesday, concludes a high-profile case that has become the longest-running appeal of a fine levied by the Texas Ethics Commission in the roughly two and half decades since the agency was created.

Hecht was fined $29,000 in 2008, one of the largest campaign finance penalties ever issued in the state.

The ethics commission determined he broke campaign finance laws while successfully fighting allegations that he abused his position by openly supporting President George W. Bush’s short-lived U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, a former White House counsel from Dallas.

Hecht accepted a sixfigure discount for his legal bill in the course of challenging the abuse-of-power charges.

The commission concluded the discount was equivalent to a campaign contribution, one he failed to report.

Instead of paying, Hecht decided to fight the fine in state district court. And the lawsuit has stalled in the courts since it was filed in January 2009.

Under the settlement, Hecht agreed to pay $1,000 and to “obtain a written fee agreement with any lawyer or law firm he hires to represent him either before or within a reasonable time after the representation commences.”

Watchdog groups snarled at the conclusion to the case, saying the commission let Hecht “off the hook” and that the fine is years late and “$28,000 light.”

“This saga makes a mockery of so-called ethics enforcement,” said Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, a liberal consumer rights group that filed the ethics complaint against Hecht in 2008. “Apparently, the way high ranking officials can beat the rap is to simply delay the process indefinitely.”