SHAME

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Flees Home in Truck to Avoid Subpoena

Court records show the great lengths Ken Paxton went to avoid being served.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton went to great lengths to avoid being served a subpoena on Monday, fleeing from his home driven in a truck by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, an affidavit filed in federal court and obtained by The Texas Tribune reveals. The state’s top attorney is alleged to have deliberately avoided and even run away from a process server. Ernesto Martin Herrera was trying to serve Paxton with a subpoena to appear and testify at a federal court hearing Tuesday in a suit from nonprofits who want to block potential criminal charges for those who help women obtain abortions out of state. According to the court documents, Herrera engaged in a back-and-forth at Paxton’s front door with a woman who identified herself as “Angela” and said her husband was on the phone and in a “hurry to leave.” Having already identified the Texas AG as being inside the house, Herrera waited in his car for an hour when he saw the garage door open and Paxton exit. As soon as Herrera exited his car and called his name, Paxton “RAN back inside the house.” A few minutes later, Angela left the house, got inside a black Chevrolet truck parked in the driveway, and started the engine, “leaving the rear door behind the driver side open.” Herrera said that as he was waiting, “Mr. Paxton ran from the door inside the garage towards the rear door behind the driver side. I approached the truck and loudly called him by his name and stated that I had court documents for him. Mr. Paxton ignored me and kept heading for the truck.” Herrera eventually placed the court documents by the side of the truck but both Angela and Ken Paxton remained inside the vehicle and drove away, “leaving the documents on the ground.”