A dispute between rural Kinney County’s county attorney and misdemeanor judge is raging on in San Antonio’s Fourth Court of Appeals over the judge’s alleged use of a pay-to-plea system that forces defendants to prepay court costs and fines before they can plead guilty.

The jurist at the center of the conflict, Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan, issued a sua sponte order that ended the system critics dubbed the “Shahan Shakedown.” But County Attorney Todd Durden, who claims Shahan is the mastermind behind the prepayment system, still wants the appellate court to intervene.