The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) knew he would be subpoenaed days before he and his wife fled their home to avoid a process server, according to communications records.
Attorneys for a group of nonprofit agencies that sued Texas over funds related to out-of-state abortion access argue Paxton’s office was aware he would be subpoenaed before he and his wife left their home Monday morning while process server Ernesto Herrera was attempting to deliver the documents.
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN PAXTON DODGED SUBPOENA OVER ABORTION CASE
The lawsuit in question was filed in federal court in August and named Paxton as one of the defendants. Plaintiffs sought to call him for testimony at a preliminary injunction hearing on Tuesday.
But just days before the hearings, on the morning of Friday, Sept. 23, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs emailed Assistant Attorney General Amy Hilton, notifying her that since it was not clear if Paxton would attend the hearing, there would be a subpoena out of “an abundance of caution.”
Hilton did not say whether the Attorney’s General Office could accept the subpoena on Paxton’s behalf, so attorneys for the plaintiffs sent a process server to deliver the subpoena to Paxton’s office on Sept. 23.
Paxton’s office wrote in a motion filed Tuesday that it was aware of the plaintiff’s attorneys’ intent to serve him with a subpoena, though office personnel clarified they were not aware that attorneys “intended to attempt personal service on Ken Paxton at his private residence” on Monday morning.
“Please let me know asap if you are authorized to accept service so I can adjust our process server instructions,” Elizabeth Myers, an attorney for the plaintiffs, wrote in an email sent Sunday at 6:50 p.m, according to communications records seen by the Washington Examiner.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman quashed the subpoena on Tuesday after attorneys for Paxton successfully argued their client was never told the name of the process server, Herrera, or given identifying information about him.
After the judge’s order, attorneys for the plaintiffs asked Pitman to reconsider and force Paxton to testify. Pitman has yet to rule on that motion and on the merits of the case in question, which is regarding whether nonprofit abortion funds can financially aid Texans to obtain abortions out of state in light of Texas’s strict abortion prohibitions.
At 8:30 on Monday morning Herrera arrived at Paxton’s residence in McKinney to serve two subpoenas, one for Paxton to testify as an individual and another in his official capacity. Herrera knocked on the door and told Paxton’s wife that he was there to deliver the documents, according to a sworn affidavit.
However, Paxton disputed the events, saying Herrera never introduced himself and claimed the process server charged at Paxton while yelling unintelligible things. Paxton issued a statement saying Herrera is “lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force.”
But the sworn affidavit said Paxton came outside of his home and was called out by Herrera, which prompted the attorney general to run back inside through a door in his garage. Several minutes later, Paxton’s wife came outside the home and turned on their black Chevrolet truck in the driveway. Shortly after, Paxton ran out to the vehicle and joined her in the car.
The affidavit said the process server loudly said he was serving Paxton legal documents and placed them in a visible location on the ground, though both he and his wife remained inside the truck and drove away, leaving the documents behind.
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Paxton has worked as the state attorney general for seven years, and his wife, Angela Paxton, has been a Texas state senator since 2019.
The attorney general is running for a third term and faces Democrat Rochelle Garza in November.
