Editors Note: This article has been updated with Will Dixon’s response, as posted on his campaign Facebook page.
Navarro County District Attorney Will Dixon’s former first assistant alleges major ethical breaches by the DA during his tenure in office and campaign for election.
In January of 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Will Dixon as the Navarro County DA, filling a vacancy created by the passing of former District Attorney Lowell Thompson. Dixon, who had held various positions within the DA’s office before being nominated by Abbott, was approved by a vote of the Texas Senate in February.
Now, with Dixon up for election this year, one of his former employees is coming forward with serious allegations of Dixon’s behavior since taking office last year that could cause some voters to question the DA’s judgment.
Andrew Wolf, a longtime assistant district attorney in Navarro County who became first assistant and Dixon’s second-in-command in February of last year, says that his former boss told him to take it easy on certain attorneys in order to help Dixon’s election.
One particular example came from a case in August, in which the defendant was being represented by a defense attorney well-known in the community.
“One to two weeks prior to the trial against [the attorney], I was told by Dixon, ‘Be nice to him; he’s going to help get me elected,’” Wolf told Texas Scorecard.
Being “nice” apparently meant pulling punches against major errors by the defense during the trial, according to Wolf’s account.
“During the trial [the attorney] made a rather embarrassing error—he subpoenaed a gas-station owner who was going to ‘prove that [our detective] was lying’ when he said that he tried to get video of the event that day,” Wolf recalled.
The error? He subpoenaed the wrong owner of the wrong gas station.
“When I told Dixon about this, he replied, ‘Don’t beat him up too badly; I need him to like me.’”
Another allegation revolves around Enoch Basnett, a defense attorney in Corsicana and current candidate for Navarro County Democrat chairman, who was appointed to serve in the office’s felony division.
“During Basnett’s training and probation period, I expressed serious concern that he was not experienced enough to be in the Felony Division,” Wolf said.
“I suggested that Dixon consider swapping him [for a different attorney],” Wolf added. “Dixon told me, ‘I’m worried that he will quit if I demote him, and he knows everybody in Corsicana, and he’s going to get me the Democratic vote.’”
Apparently, Dixon believed Basnett would assist his re-election by encouraging Democrats in the area to vote for him over his Republican primary opponent.
Wolf also says on numerous occasions, Dixon used his office phone to call members of law enforcement to question them about why they or a family member had “shown interest”—by liking a Facebook post, making a contribution, or attending an event—in the campaign of his opponent, another former Navarro County assistant district attorney, Will Thompson.
Wolf himself says he was even the target of a “face-to face” confrontation with Dixon for liking and commenting on a Facebook post made by one of Thompson’s supporters in the DA’s office.
The subject of the post? A chocolate cake recipe.
Dixon, however, has denied the allegations and claims. In a post in response to Wolf’s allegations on his campaign Facebook page, he says Wolf was asked to resign “because he could not act professionally in court with the judges and defense attorneys.”
“Since that time, Mr. Wolf has proceeded to say untrue and salacious information about District Attorney Dixon to whoever will listen,” he added.
The Republican primary election will take place on March 3, 2020.
