Plano attorney Jason Van Dyke thought he’d be starting a new job this month as an assistant district attorney in Victoria County so he shut down his solo law office and placed a contract on a house in what he thought would be his new hometown.

But two weeks before Van Dyke was to start his new position, the job offer was rescinded with no explanation, he said. His subsequent emails and telephone calls to the man who offered him the position, Victoria County District Attorney Stephen B. Tyler, were ignored. So in a highly unusual move, Van Dyke has filed a petition in a state district court seeking to get an answer from the prosecutor.