Delay for pay, as it were.
Best mugshot ever
The special prosecutors handling the securities fraud case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are asking to put off his trial until they can get paid.
On Thursday, the prosecutors proposed moving the trial, currently set for May 1, to 60 days after a Dallas appeals court settles the payment dispute, which stems from a lawsuit by a Paxton supporter. Earlier this year, the 5th Court of Appeals temporarily blocked Collin County from paying the outside prosecutors assigned to the case, casting uncertainty over whether they would get paid as they prepare for trial in the high-profile case.
Collin County officials appointed special prosecutors Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice in 2015 after Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, a Paxton friend and business partner, stepped aside. Nicole Deborde, a Houston attorney, later joined the prosecution.
“Everyone in the courtroom is being paid to be there except us,” the prosecutors said in a statement Thursday. “No one expected us to work for free when we accepted our appointment as special prosecutors. It’s only fair to compensate us for the hours we’ve already spent and will continue to spend to adequately prepare to try this case on behalf of the citizens of the State of Texas.”
[…]
If granted, the motion would likely push the trial deeper into the year as prosecutors wait for a favorable ruling from the appeals court. In their filing Thursday, however, the prosecutors expressed confidence the trial would still proceed on a relatively prompt timeline.
“If the past is prologue, this case could be tried sooner rather than later, certainly no later than September 1, 2017,” the prosecutors wrote.
See here for the background. The logic seems inarguable to me – surely we don’t expect the special prosecutors to work for free at this point – but one never knows with the courts. It’s not clear to me what happens if the 5th Court overturns the lower court ruling and agrees that their pay has been capped. I don’t know that there’s an obvious answer to that. We’ll see what the trial court makes of this.