Dallas lawmaker charged with felony

AUSTIN (AP) — A state representative plans to plead guilty to a felony charge that he used taxpayer money to reimburse himself for travel expenses that his campaign had already funded, an official said Tuesday.

Dallas-area Rep. Joe Driver will enter the plea on a charge of official abuse of capacity at a Nov. 22 court hearing, said Gregg Cox, the director of the public integrity unit with the Travis County district attorney's office in Austin.

Driver, a 65-year-old Texas House veteran from Garland who was first elected in 1992, has acknowledged that for years he collected reimbursements from taxpayers for travel he already had paid for using donated campaign money. He paid for luxury hotels, airline tickets, meals and conference registration fees with campaign funds then submitted receipts for those same expenses to the state.

Driver said he didn't know he was doing anything wrong, but he reimbursed his campaign $49,426 after The Associated Press revealed the double-dipping. He waived an indictment and was charged with misusing something of value to the government that was worth more than $20,000 but less than $100,000, Cox said.

Cox said he didn't know the details of the plea agreement. Driver's attorney didn't immediately return a phone call. The punishment range for the third-degree felony is two to 10 years in prison, but Cox said Driver could receive probation.

Driver announced last month that has retiring and would not seek re-election. He was elected to a 10th term a few months after the AP revealed the double-dipping practice.

Driver could have owed more in taxpayer reimbursements, but House travel records before 2005 already had been destroyed and Driver's campaign said he was unable to calculate the amount of any double-billing that happened more than five years ago. Driver has said he didn't know when he began pocketing taxpayer money for expenses picked up by his campaign.