Court reimburses Daugherty for legal expenses

The four Democrats on the Travis County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to approve reimbursing their one Republican colleague, Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, for legal expenses he incurred defending himself against a criminal complaint. The county will pay Daugherty roughly $8,000, or 75 percent of the nearly $12,000 he paid attorney Randy Leavitt between March 2014 and January 2016. A special prosecutor hired by the county to examine the case against Daugherty moved in October of 2015 to dismiss the complaint, which centered on Daugherty’s deleting text and email correspondences related to the construction of the controversial State Highway 45. In the motion approving the reimbursement, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said that the legal defense of Daugherty was in the interest of the county and that Daugherty had acted in good faith. She later credited her colleague with insisting that he pick up a portion of the attorney fees. Daugherty argued, she said, that elected officials should have some “skin in the game” when they request legal assistance from the county.