HOLD UP: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is dealing with special prosecutors.

Collin County District Judge George Gallagher has ordered the county to pay $254,908.55 to three special prosecutors for their work to date in constructing a criminal case against Attorney General Ken Paxton.

County Auditor Jeff May informed the Commissioners Court Wednesday afternoon he had received three orders from Gallagher, instructing him to present the invoices for that body’s approval at its next meeting, on Monday.

Collin County taxpayer Jeffory Blackard filed a petition last week seeking a restraining order to block payments to the prosecutors in violation of state law and county rules.

The special prosecutors are supposed to be paid according to the county’s fee schedule for indigent defendants. That is, state law holds they “shall receive compensation” in the “same amount and manner” as a court-appointed lawyer defending a homeless person.

That’s not much in this case: $1,000 for pretrial work, $1,000 a day for trial, with a possible $1,000 bump if a judge deems it appropriate.

That schedule was amended last year to state it should be followed “without exception.”

Gallagher’s orders note that the fee schedule has some language — which some of his colleagues believe is inoperative — allowing for deviation from the fee schedule in “unusual circumstances,” although the order doesn’t say what unusual circumstances might exist in this case.

Last spring, Gallagher’s colleague Scott Becker approved a special $300-an-hour rate for two prosecutors, Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice, with a lower rate to be paid for a third, according to notes of a conversation he had with a county commissioner. Court-attorneys in death penalty cases, by comparison, receive $150 an hour.

Despite that arrangement, all three attorneys billed at the $300-an-hour rate for their work to date — a total of 806.75 hours.

Almost all of the money is for hourly billing. The prosecutors had just $12,883.95 in expenses, mostly for airfare, hotel, cabs, and parking, although there was a $26 valet charge (a perk not usually available to public defenders, but there may have been an “unusual circumstance” necessitating it.)

Paxton is defending himself vigorously, appealing an initial decision by Gallagher not to dismiss the case. That guarantees a lot more expensive lawyering before the case even gets to trial, assuming it does.

In the past, Collin County has handled securities fraud cases using Texas State Securities Board attorneys tasked to the local district attorney’s office.

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The prosecutors still haven’t explained their theory of how Paxton’s actions in the case were in any way fraudulent.

For one charge, soliciting an investor without being registered on a state list, Paxton already admitted responsibility and accepted a $1,000 fine. Now that he’s threatened with prison time over his name not being on the list, his lawyers have presented evidence the registration requirement wouldn’t have applied to him until three months after the supposed violation.

On the other two counts, where Paxton supposedly omitted material information about a potential investment, the prosecutors haven’t offered any account of how Paxton’s conduct would be fraudulent. If the facts of the case turn out to be nothing more than, say, Paxton invited a friend to a meeting, there could be a few Collin County officials with egg on their faces.

The Collin County Commissioners Court meets Monday at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the order.

Contact Jon Cassidy at jon@watchdog.org or @jpcassidy000.