Court rules prosecutors in Paxton fraud case should not receive higher pay

A Houston appeals court has ruled that a previously set cap on payments to prosecutors who worked for years on the securities fraud case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will remain in place.

This means that prosecutors will receive no more than $2,000 in total for their work on the case, which began in 2016.

Harris County District Judge Andrea Beall, who took over the case when it returned to Harris County from Collin County, had already set a new hourly wage of $300 for special prosecutors Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer in October.

In an order, Beall wrote that the $2,000 cap under Collin County's fee schedule was “wholly unreasonable” given the scope of the investigation, the review of evidence and the complexity of the case.

Wice and Schaffer had said they were confident the appeals court would enforce Beall's order. Both prosecutors had been working on the case without pay since 2016, when the Collin County District Court awarded a one-time payment before halting all compensation.

In October, Schaffer said he was entitled to $150,000 for his work alone. In February, he left the case because of disagreements with Wice about how to resolve the case. Schaffer was replaced by Houston-based criminal defense attorney Jed Silverman.

Paxton's lead defense attorneys Dan Cogdell and Philip Hilder had previously described Wice and Schaffer's demand for a salary increase as a “delaying sideshow” that could lead to further delays in the case.

Wice confirmed in a written statement to the Houston Press that prosecutors plan to appeal Thursday's verdict:

“For the second time in three years, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has awarded Ken Paxton and his cohorts in Collin County a victory they were not entitled to under the law. Today, the Court of Appeals effectively ruled that special prosecutors must be paid less than $5 an hour for all the work they have done over the past eight years.

“In 2021, the Court of Appeals' decision to return Paxton's securities fraud prosecution from Harris County to Collin County was decisively overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeals. The State is confident that today's ruling will meet the same fate.”

The Press reached out to Cogdell for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

The long-running dispute over prosecutors' salaries is the last unresolved issue. In March, Paxton struck a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to avoid trial on the securities fraud charges that have been against him for nearly nine years.

The 18-month pretrial intervention agreement that brought the case to a close requires Paxton to pay restitution and complete 100 hours of community service in Collin County and 15 hours of legal ethics courses.

Paxton will reportedly volunteer at a local food bank.

Under the terms of the agreement, the attorney general was spared a criminal conviction, a prison sentence, loss of his law license, and was not required to admit guilt.

In July 2015, Paxton was charged with three felony counts of soliciting investors for Servergy INC. without disclosing that he was being paid to promote the company's stock and failing to register with state securities regulators.

This story will be updated as needed.