Fifth Circuit Opens Ethics Probe As Bankruptcy Judge Resigns

Courthouse News reports that U.S. Judge David R. Jones has resigned effective Nov. 15, from the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of Texas. He announced his resignation a few days after the Fifth Circuit revealed it had opened an ethics probe of his decisions, based on a complaint about his handling of a recusal motion.

Jones was an active judge, he presided over several high-profile Chapter 11s, including Neiman Marcus, Cineworld Group, and Serta Simmons Bedding.

The Judge’s problems began while he was hearing McDermott International’s bankruptcy case in his Houston courtroom. Michael Van Deelen, a party to the suit, received an anonymous letter detailing an alleged scheme in which Jones’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Freeman, who’d clerked for him before becoming a partner at the law firm Jackson Walker, would represent parties before Jones, and get favorable treatment from him.

Van Deelen filed a recusal motion, claiming a conflict because the Jackson Walker firm represented McDermott International. Jones referred the motion to his colleague, Southern District of Texas bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur, who denied it, explaining that the only evidence of Jones and Freeman’s alleged scheme was the anonymous letter.

Van Deelen’s appeal to a federal district court judge was denied as well. However, Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman of the Fifth Circuit noted in her Court’s six-page complaint that since 2017 Jones had approved attorneys’ fees payable to Jackson Walker for several cases that Elizabeth Freeman had worked on. The firm did not list her as the counsel of record for those cases, but the amounts the firm billed for her services was substantial.

“There is probable cause to believe that Judge Jones has engaged in misconduct,” Richman wrote.