Lt. Gov. Patrick taps retired Dallas judge Lana Myers to help in Paxton impeachment trial

AUSTIN — A veteran Dallas County judge will assist Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick when he presides over next week’s impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Patrick announced Monday that Lana Myers, a former trial and appeals court judge, will help him as “legal counsel for the presiding officer.” It was Patrick’s second stab at filling the  temporary position that Texas Senate rules for the trial created.

His first pick, retired Houston appellate judge Marc Brown, bowed out after news outlets examined political contributions he made and received.

“Justice Myers is an extremely well-qualified candidate with courtroom experience as an attorney and a judge,” Patrick said in a written statement.

In that role, Myers will assist “on matters related to all rulings, orders, mandates, writs, questions of evidence, and processes authorized by the rules of the court of impeachment,” the trial rules note.

Myers, a Republican and a former prosecutor and judge, retired last year from the state 5th Court of Appeals. She had served since 2009 on the 13-justice appellate court that hears civil and criminal appeals from Collin, Dallas, Grayson, Hunt and Rockwall counties.While Myers was on the bench, the Dallas appellate court weighed in on a case involving the two men whose fraud allegations led to Paxton’s criminal indictment in 2015.

The appeals court ruled 11-1 that Byron Cook, a former GOP state representative from Corsicana, and the late Joel Hochberg could name Paxton as a “responsible third party” in a dispute over a company called Unity Resources.

Myers did not participate in that ruling. The court’s majority opinion does not explain why. Paxton has been deposed in the Unity case twice since 2019.

Paxton’s 2015 indictments remain active. He has pleaded not guilty and the trial has been postponed until after his impeachment proceedings. Hochberg died earlier this year.

Myers, 69, of Coppell, grew up in Dallas. Her father, the late Jack Sloan Rolf, was a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald who later became an oil and gas industry publicist. Lana Rolf earned undergraduate and law degrees from Baylor University.

From 1982-1993, she served as an assistant district attorney for Dallas County.

After a year in private practice as a criminal defense lawyer, she won election in 1994 as judge of the 203rd District Court in Dallas County. She served there 14 years, winning recognition for devising a program to help women escape prostitution.

Former Gov. Rick Perry appointed Myers to the 5th Court of Appeals. In 2010, she easily secured a full six year term, beating Democrat Bonnie Lee Goldstein by 16 percentage points. In 2016, Myers prevailed against Democrat Gena Slaughter for a second term.

Patrick’s first choice for the upcoming trial, Brown, withdrew within 24 hours after reporters began asking questions about a $250 contribution he and his wife Susan Baetz Brown made to a Paxton foe in last year’s GOP primary for attorney general.

Many Houston lawyers are involved in Paxton’s various legal and political proceedings. Some had given money to Brown for his own judicial races.

A review of Myers’ contributions on the Texas Ethics Commission website shows she primarily has donated to local Republican parties and GOP women’s groups.

In Perry’s successful 2010 re-election bid, Myers gave him $300.

Under rules for Paxton’s trial that the Senate adopted in June, Patrick will preside and is allowed to select legal counsel, as long as the person isn’t a registered lobbyist.

Paxton, a three-term GOP attorney general, is accused of sweeping abuses, including bribery and abuse of power, across 20 articles of impeachment. Paxton denies all wrongdoing.

The Senate trial begins Sept. 5.