The rapidly expanding Ogden Valley has seen a number of people from out of state making deals in the scenic area, close to sprawling national forests and ski resorts.
You can add a controversial politician to that list of out-of-state buyers — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives in May and faces a trial in the Texas Senate this September.
Paxton and his wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, purchased a piece of land near Eden in 2021, according to a report last week from the Wall Street Journal.
The Salt Lake Tribune confirmed the Journal’s reporting after reviewing public property and tax records, along with sales records shared by the Weber County resident who sold the land to the Paxtons.
Paxton and his family purchased a .64 acre parcel of land near Eden for $315,000, and paid cash, according to sales records shared with The Tribune. Paxton signed his name on a purchase contract for the parcel on June 19, 2021, and a warranty deed was recorded on July 22 of the same year.
The deed to the parcel, as well as publicly available property records, lists the owner as Esther Blind Trust, which is the name of Paxton’s family trust listed in the Journal report. Paxton’s wife paid the property taxes on the parcel in 2021 and 2022, according to Weber County parcel search records.
Kay Hoogland, a retired attorney who lives in the Ogden Valley, owned the property before it was purchased by the Paxton family. She told The Tribune she bought the parcel in 2006 with the hopes of building a home there when she retired. However, she and her husband, Jim O’Brien, opted to buy a different parcel of land nearby to build a house on. Hoogland said she held on to the property for years in the hopes its value would increase but its value dropped significantly after the 2008 housing market crash.
In April 2021, she got a call from her real estate agent saying there was a potential buyer of the property. After agreeing to the sale price of $315,000, Hoogland saw Ken Paxton’s signature on the purchase contract, and she recognized the name as that of the Texas attorney general.
“I’m kind of embarrassed I sold to him,” Hoogland told The Tribune, noting his current controversy and the fact Paxton was indicted on two counts of securities fraud in 2015. Paxton has yet to go to trial on the charges.
Hoogland ultimately signed off on the purchase and noticed that the deed was later put in the name of Esther Blind Trust, the entity which the Paxtons used to purchase land in other states.
Messages to Ken Paxton’s attorney and campaign staff seeking comment were not immediately returned as of Wednesday afternoon.
The Journal article says investigators are examining real estate purchases by Paxton and his wife after the Texas attorney general came under the microscope of federal investigators regarding whether or not he abused his office. Between June 2021 and April 2022, the Paxtons reportedly spent over $3.5 million on properties in Utah, Oklahoma, Florida and Hawaii.
Ken and Angela Paxton notably made a trip to Utah in February 2021, just weeks before their Eden land purchase, during the catastrophic winter storms that knocked out parts of the Texas power grid and led to deaths across the state, according to the Dallas Morning News.
A spokesperson for Ken Paxton’s campaign told to the Texas Tribune that Paxton was in Utah for a “previously planned trip” to meet with Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, along with other meetings. A spokesperson for Reyes’ office also confirmed Paxton was in the state at that time.
