AG Ken Paxton booked on felony charges

Attorney General Ken Paxton was booked this morning and released from the Collin County following a trio of felony indictments handed down by a Collin County grand jury last week.

Paxton arrived at the Collin County jail Monday to be processed on two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a lesser count of failing to register with state securities regulators.

“Some of the outrageous events surrounding this sloppy process certainly do not typify the level of quality that Texans expect from our judicial system”, said Aaron Whitehead, spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas.

The first-degree securities fraud indictments carry a potential penalty of up 99 years in prison.

Questions about Paxton’s financial dealings have shadowed the tea party conservative since he took office in January.

Paxton was also released on a personal recognizance bond.

“Paxton is accused of fraud, of deceptively luring investors in 2011 into bankrolling a Texas technology company called Servergy“. He becomes the second prominent Texas official to be indicted within the past year, after former Gov. Rick Perry.

In the middle of last year’s heated Republican primary, Paxton admitted to violating state securities law for not disclosing to regulators that he was receiving commissions for referring law clients to a financial planner. He paid a $1,000 fine.

Paxton drew national attention when he said county clerks in Texas who object to gay marriage on religious grounds can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June requiring states to allow same-sex marriage. Unbeknownst to Cook, Paxton had been given more than 100,000 shares of Servergy stock, according to the indictment.

The two appointed special prosecutors, Houston defense lawyers Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer, will not be in Collin County and said Monday that they will not comment on the case.

“Paxton allegedly pretended to be an investor in the company himself”.

The grand jury in Paxton’s hometown of McKinney reportedly returned three criminal indictments against him last week. Kane, who took office in 2013, has not been charged and has consistently denied that she broke any laws.

Ken Paxton was sworn in as attorney general on January 1. Utah’s previous two attorneys generals were also arrested last summer on charges of running pay-to-play schemes during their combined 13 years in office.