Hays County district clerk files petition to remove DA from office

Petition filed to remove Hays Co. DA

It's the first county in central Texas to try to use a new law aimed at removing so-called "rogue DAs." The Hays County District Clerk is filing a petition in an effort to remove the county's district attorney.

HAYS COUNTY, Texas - According to Hays County court records, district clerk Avrey Anderson filed a petition on Tuesday, September 12, to remove Hays County DA Kelly Higgins from office.

The petition states that, under Texas law, a district attorney is responsible for representing the state in all criminal cases in district court.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed a total of eight public safety related bills into laws, including HB 17, which aims to hold so-called "rogue district attorneys" accountable.

Under the law, a DA's refusal to prosecute certain types of crimes would constitute "official misconduct."

That would then allow the prosecutor to potentially be removed from office by a judge from outside that district.

"If a district attorney wants to be in law enforcement, they have to start by enforcing the laws," Gov. Abbott said. "If they want to make state policy, they should run for state legislature."

HAYS COUNTY NEWS

Following an amendment of the charges, the petition claims that Higgins committed the following unlawful actions:

Implementation and execution of a policy or policies of refusing to prosecute a class or type of criminal offense under state law Kelly Higgins has made a public declaration that he will not prosecute simple drug possession offenses and that he would divert resources in the prosecution thereof. He made these declarations on his website in 2022 and has talked about it throughout campaigning in 2022. To this date of September 18, 2023, the public declaration remains on Kelly Higgins’ website. Kelly Higgins has made a public declaration that he will not prosecute simple cannabis possession offenses. He made these declarations on his website in 2022 and has talked about it throughout campaigning in 2022. To this date of September 18, 2023, the public declaration remains on Kelly Higgins’ website.
Kelly Higgins has made a public declaration that he will not prosecute simple drug possession offenses and that he would divert resources in the prosecution thereof. He made these declarations on his website in 2022 and has talked about it throughout campaigning in 2022. To this date of September 18, 2023, the public declaration remains on Kelly Higgins’ website.
Kelly Higgins has made a public declaration that he will not prosecute simple cannabis possession offenses. He made these declarations on his website in 2022 and has talked about it throughout campaigning in 2022. To this date of September 18, 2023, the public declaration remains on Kelly Higgins’ website.
Actual decline in felony drug possession cases following the implementation of said unlawful policies: An excessive amount of felony possession causes are being declined for random and nonspecific reasons even after September 1st the earliest date past that date being September 6th and spanning in a variety of excuses for decline up until September 11 An excessive amount of felony possession causes have been declined for random and nonspecific reasons since January 2023 to September 11.
An excessive amount of felony possession causes are being declined for random and nonspecific reasons even after September 1st the earliest date past that date being September 6th and spanning in a variety of excuses for decline up until September 11
An excessive amount of felony possession causes have been declined for random and nonspecific reasons since January 2023 to September 11.

The petition also says an excessive amount of cannabis, meth, and cocaine are being declined for random and nonspecific reasons. Under section 87.011 of the Texas local government code, a DA may be removed from the office for official misconduct.

The petition also demands a jury trial asking to suspend Higgins and appoint another person to perform the duties of the office.

State representative Erin Zwiener for Texas house district 45 reacted to this petition via X.

The tweet says "Anderson clearly doesn’t share our values or the values of Hays County, and now he’s wasting taxpayer resources filing a ridiculous lawsuit against another county official. "

FOX 7 Austin news reached out to Avrey Anderson for a comment, he sent this statement:

There are legal grounds and there are my grounds.

First, I will elaborate and reiterate what I have said before. I fully support a woman’s right to bodily autonomy as well as a transgender person’s right to bodily autonomy. I also agree that the prosecutions of minor drug offenses have negatively impacted the justice system and the fairness thereof. This doesn’t mean that I or any other elected official can personally undermine the laws that we swore to uphold, or in the case of a District Attorney enforce.

Secondly, I will elaborate that our District Attorney lacks professional courtesy and decorum. I experienced Kelly Higgins’ blind rage firsthand in the beginning of this year when he exploded in my office and attempted to intimidate me by threatening litigation via mandamus action for a misunderstanding about how we process subpoenas. This could have been solved with a meeting or a simple phone call.

I had been attempting to hold meetings with Higgins prior to this time period so that we could implement a plan of action. These meetings would be used to talk about issues and solutions for those issues to be put in place between the office of the District Attorney and the District Clerk’s office. Tensions have existed in the prior administrations between the District clerk’s office and the District Attorney’s office. I attempted to eliminate these tensions so that we could put our administrations on a fresh start toward working together for the betterment of justice in Hays County.

I have told other officials about my issues with Higgins and many of them had the same or similar issues with him. He has impulsively yelled at people in the government center in several offices. It isn’t any new story to hear of Kelly Higgins being belligerent in the government center. Before Kelly Higgins was District Attorney, he was a criminal defense attorney with no prosecutorial experience.

I also believe that Kelly Higgins ran on a misleading platform. Higgins told his constituents that he would "not use the resources of Hays County to prosecute abortion or other medical decisions made between a patient and their physicians." Negating and refusing to mention the fact that no doctor would be performing an abortion under risk of losing their license. In other words, it’s easy to say you are not going to punish an act or offense that is very unlikely to be achieved without judicial bypass.

In the end I believe that Hays County deserves better.