Ugh.
Best mugshot ever
The prosecutors pursuing charges against Attorney General Ken Paxton haven’t been paid in more than a year and a half — and they will continue to wait on a payday.
On Monday, the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas voided a $205,000 invoice dating back to January 2016, saying state laws and local rules did not allow the three special prosecutors to be paid the $300-an-hour rate they were promised.
[…]
[David Feldman, attorney for the special prosecutors,] argued state law and local rules gave Collin County district judges, who decide how much to pay special prosecutors, discretion to stray from fee rules in unusual circumstances. He called it “honorable” that his clients continued to prosecute the case when they hadn’t been paid in 19 months.
But the Dallas court on Monday sided with the commissioners, saying Texas law requires counties to “set both minimum and maximum hourly rates” in these cases. By adopting local rules that allowed them to exceed their own maximum fees, the court said “the judges exceeded their authority.
“The statute does not prevent the judges from taking into consideration the possibility of ‘unusual circumstances’ in setting the range of reasonable fees allowed,” Justice Molly Francis wrote for the court. “But the legislature intended each county to have an agreed framework that sets out the specific range of reasonable fees that could be paid.”
See here and here for some background. I will say again, this basically amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card for state officials who are accused of crimes in their home counties. The state should be responsible for the cost of such prosecutions, wherever they occur, and they should cover the going pay rate for attorneys who are qualified to handle a high-profile case. It’s the only way to avoid these shenanigans.