Newsletter Signup
Most Popular Stories
- New forecast modeling puts Austin homeless population near 4,600
- Texas Legislature could derail Austin’s transit expansion
- Report: APD Training Academy curriculum review flawed, hampered by resistance to reform
- Austin Public Health offers $50 gift cards for COVID vaccinations and boosters
- Landmark Commission stalls demolition at former summer camp in Northwest Hills
-
Discover News By District
The Austin Monitor thanks our sponsors. Become one today! Popular Whispers
- A “peaker” power plant will be built in Caldwell County
- The process of implementing automated parking pay stations at Zilker is almost finished
- Bring your signs honoring César Chávez for annual march and celebration set for Saturday
- It’s time to hurry up and get storm debris to the curb
- Council OKs plan for libraries
Court reimburses Daugherty for legal expenses
Thursday, April 13, 2017 by Jack Craver
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.
Join Your Friends and Neighbors
We're a nonprofit news organization, and we put our service to you above all else. That will never change. But public-service journalism requires community support from readers like you. Will you join your friends and neighbors to support our work and mission?