AUSTIN, Texas _ Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's criminal cases have been officially transferred to Houston, triggering the search for a new judge.
In an order signed Friday morning, Judge George Gallagher sent Paxton's case file from Collin to Harris County. He also vacated four rulings made recently, including setting a September trial date and ordering Collin County to pay the prosecutors pursuing the criminal charges against Paxton.
Gallagher was forced to undo these decisions after the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas ruled he must step aside by June 9. Siding with the attorney general, the appeals court said Gallagher could not continue to preside over the Paxton's cases after he moved them out of Collin County.
The judge's ouster is a major win for Paxton, who had been trying for months to boot Gallagher, but it does not undo the fact that his cases and any upcoming trials are still scheduled to be held in Harris County. Paxton is far better known in McKinney, where he's lived and worked for years, than Houston, a Democratic stronghold in red Texas.
Gallagher did not respond to requests for comment on his removal Friday, saying only his order to move the case to Houston "was entered to comply with the order of the 5th Court of Appeals order dated May 30."
The move will now trigger the search for a new judge in Harris County.
On Thursday, Harris County District Courts Administrator Clay Bowman told The Dallas Morning News that Administrative Judge Robert Schaffer would be taking the lead on finding Gallagher's replacement.
"Our local administrative judge is the person who will be handling, sort of shepherding, the assignment of the case," said Bowman, who added Olen Underwood, the regional presiding judge for Harris and 34 other counties in southeast Texas, would likely also be involved.
There are nearly two dozen criminal district judges in Harris County who could be assigned the case. Nearly half are Democrats. These judges, who are locally elected, have received thousands of dollars in donations from all three prosecutors and two of Paxton's top attorneys in the past.
Usually, Harris County assigns judges for criminal cases using the "Automated Random Assignment System," a kind of massive bingo cage containing 220 balls that spits out assignments. Bowman said it's unclear whether this same system will be used to choose Gallagher's replacement or whether Schaffer and Underwood will hand-choose a successor.
The county would have more information once the Paxton matter is assigned a new case number, Bowman added: "They will make some kind go announcement once the case is here."
Paxton was indicted nearly two years ago for allegedly duping two men in an investment scheme involving a McKinney tech startup called Servergy, Inc. He faces two first-degree felony fraud charges tied to these allegations, which carry a maximum penalty of 99 years in prison and tens of thousands in fines.
He is also accused of having failed to register as an investment adviser representative while he funneled clients to a friend's investment firm, a third-degree felony. Paxton paid a $1,000 fine in 2014 for failing to register, but he insists it was an administrative error that does not rise to a criminal issue.
Paxton denies all the allegations, saying they're part of a politically motivated attack perpetrated by opponents within his own party. One of the two main accusers in the fraud case is Corsicana Rep Byron Cook, a fellow Republican, who is now also facing fraud allegations lobbed against him by Paxton's pastor and the head of his blind trust.
