Court rules Texas AG’s criminal trial should return to his home county

AUSTIN — Rejecting prosecutors once again, a state appeals court on Thursday declined to reconsider a ruling that moved Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s criminal trial out of Houston and back to his home county.

The ruling by the Houston-based 1st Court of Appeals, however, won’t immediately return the often-delayed case to Collin County. Prosecutors said they will continue their appeals by asking the state’s highest criminal court to rule on the matter.

Two charges of securities fraud — related to private business dealings from a decade ago — have been pending since a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in 2015. Prosecutors succeeded in moving the case to Houston in 2017, arguing that they could not get a fair trial in the county Paxton represented during 12 years in the Texas House and Senate before becoming attorney general in 2015. But Paxton’s legal team later objected, arguing that the judge who ordered the move had lost jurisdiction over the case. A Houston judge agreed and ordered Paxton’s trial returned to Collin County in 2020. Prosecutors appealed but lost in May when a three-judge panel on the Houston-based 1st Court of Appeals said prosecutors failed to prove that the original transfer order was valid.

Prosecutors next asked all nine justices on the appeals court to reconsider the ruling — a request that was denied 6-2 Thursday, with one justice not participating. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Amparo Guerra said she believed Paxton’s case was moved to Houston in a valid court order. Guerra also said the 1st Court’s rulings could create confusion about judges’ authority over assigned cases.