When you mess with Texas, sometimes it runs away and pretends it’s not home.
The state’s top legal official, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, fled his home Monday to avoid being served a subpoena concerning a federal lawsuit that seeks to help Texans access and pay for out-of-state abortions.
Process server Ernesto Martin Herrera testified in a sworn affidavit that Paxton “refused to accept” the documents when he was confronted with them Monday morning and instead literally ran away, then fled in a truck driven by his wife, Republican state Sen. Angela Paxton.
Herrera said he saw Ken Paxton in the house when he first approached the residence about 8:30 a.m. and told his wife when she answered the door that he “was trying to deliver important legal documents” to the attorney general.
“When [Ken Paxton] saw me,” Herrera said, “he turned around and went back to where he came from.”
Angela Paxton responded that her husband was on the phone, at which point Herrera left a business card and offered to wait.
Roughly an hour later, Herrera said, the garage door opened and Ken Paxton emerged.
“I walked up the driveway approaching Mr. Paxton and called him by his name,” Herrera testified. “As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and ran back inside the house.”
About 10 minutes later, Sen. Paxton entered the garage instead and proceeded to open a rear door on the truck for the attorney general to quickly duck into.
Soon after, Herrera said, “Mr. Paxton ran from the door inside the garage” to the truck, ignoring the process server as he “loudly” stated he had court documents.
Herrera placed the documents on the ground beside the truck, and the Paxton family drove away.
The attorney general attempted to defend himself Tuesday, portraying his actions as a matter of personal safety.
“A strange man came onto my property at home, yelled unintelligibly, and charged toward me,” Paxton said in a statement. “I perceived this person to be a threat because he was neither honest nor upfront about his intentions.”
“Given that this suspicious and erratic man charged me on my private property, he is lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force,” he added.
In separate tweets, Paxton also disparaged a report on his behavior by The Texas Tribune as “a ridiculous waste of time” and said “the media should be ashamed of themselves.”
