Process server says Texas AG fled to avoid subpoena

A process server who sought to deliver a subpoena to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday said the public official turned away from him as he said he wanted to deliver the court documents.

“As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and RAN back inside the house,” said Ernesto Martin Herrera in an affidavit filed the same day, posted online by The Texas Tribune.

Paxton, on Twitter, also indicated he moved away from Herrera, the process server, though he said it was a natural reaction to a stranger showing up at his home.

“It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy involving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family,” he wrote on Twitter.

“This is a ridiculous waste of time and the media should be ashamed of themselves. All across the country, conservatives have faced threats to their safety — many threats that received scant coverage or condemnation from the mainstream media,” he added in a second tweet.

Herrera claims that Paxton ignored him when he said he had court documents, which called the attorney general to a federal court hearing on Tuesday regarding a lawsuit filed by organizations attempting to pay for Texans to procure abortions out of state.

Paxton allegedly ran from his house to a truck being driven by his wife Angela, a state senator, to avoid interacting with Herrera, according to the process server.

“After determining that Mr. Paxton was not going to take the Subpoenas from my hand, I stated that I was serving him with legal documents and was leaving them on the ground where he could get them,” Herrera wrote in the affidavit.