John Paschall is shopping for a new judge

This afternoon I learned that the Calvert Historical Foundation dismissed its lawsuit against former Robertson County District Attorney John C. Paschall, walking away from more than $86,000.00 in cash sitting in the registry of the court. I also learned that Paschall is trying to get the case transferred to another court.

Until July, you may recall, I represented the foundation in the lawsuit that accused Paschall of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the estate of Marium Oscar. I represented the foundation at no charge, but the foundation fired me after a sudden influx of new members ousted the president of the organization.  Then Paschall’s lawyers tried to frame me for barratry (for the second time), only to have  it blow up in their faces (again).

Rusty.249111858_stdYou have to give those crooks credit for one thing: they never give up. Prior to my termination, I had repeatedly heard rumors that Paschall and his attorney, Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ, Jr., were trying to get their cronies to join the foundation as members, then sabotage the lawsuit. And now that the FBI, the Texas Rangers, and the State Bar of Texas are investigating, they are trying really hard to shut down the civil case against Paschall.

Apparently Rusty has asked Senior District Judge H.D. Black, Jr., the visiting judge who is presiding over the Marium Oscar probate proceeding, to transfer the case back to county court. This is a nefarious request. Like all probate cases, the Marium Oscar case originally was filed in county court. The county judge at the time grew very suspicious of Paschall, however, because time and again Paschall failed to file the statutorily-mandated inventory of the estate’s assets. Eventually, the county judge removed Paschall as executor.

Paschall’s drinking buddy and attorney at the time, T. Wayne Brimhall (who is also the husband of County Clerk Kathryn Brimhall), immediately asked the county judge to transfer the case to district court, supposedly because the estate owned some bond certificates that needed to be interpreted by the district court. The request was a ruse, because to this day Paschall has never asked the district court to interpret any bond certificates. 

The real reason for the transfer to district court? The regular district judge in Robertson County is none other than Robert M. Stem, another crony of John Paschall and Rusty Russ. Once he was on the case, Judge Stem immediately reappointed Paschall as the executor.  In the four years that he presided over the case, Judge Stem never made Paschall account for his stewardship of the estate, but instead he turned a blind eye while Paschall continued to loot the estate.

I threw a monkey wrench into the mix when I filed the lawsuit against Paschall in 2011, because Judge Stem must recuse himself from all of my cases. That’s why Judge Black was appointed visiting judge. But now that Judge Black has figured out that Rusty and Paschall are up to no good – and since they have no control over him like they did Stem – they are desperate to get the case transferred away from him and back to county court.

Why? Because Jan Roe has taken over as county judge since the case was originally transferred to district court. Judge Roe is not a lawyer, so I’m sure Rusty could roll right over her, but that’s not the real reason they want her on the case. They want her to preside over the case because she, like Stem, is another one of their cronies. Just another day in Booger County, right?

I’ve also learned that Stephen Boykin, an attorney in Franklin, represented the foundation after my termination. This is significant for several reasons. Boykin owns a title company, and he does not normally represent clients in litigation. He probably wouldn’t know how to try a case if his life depended on it, but in this case he didn’t need to know how to litigate, because all he did was file a notice of nonsuit, and that nonsuit was probably drafted by none other than Rusty Russ.

Boykin follows Rusty around like a little yard dog, taking whatever scraps Rusty will give him. Since the foundation is a corporation, it could not be represented in court by a non-attorney. The foundation is broke (which makes it all the more baffling that its members would walk away from more than $86k), so Rusty almost certainly told Boykin to represent the foundation for the limited purpose of getting the claims dismissed.

This does not, however, automatically end the case against Paschall. The claims against him were filed as part of the probation of Ms. Oscar’s estate, and that probate proceeding is still open. Judge Black could choose to appoint a receiver to pursue the claims against Paschall, or the Office of the Attorney General could choose to intervene on behalf of the trust that was supposed to receive the proceeds from Ms. Oscar’s estate. I’m told that an OAG attorney will be present at the next hearing on August 27, 2014. I hope that’s right, because OAG’s charitable trusts division really needs to step up to the plate this time.

By the way, I am planning to launch BoogerCountyMafia.com early next week. I’ll be posting deposition transcripts, court documents, and settlement agreements showing that Rusty and his law partner, James H. “Jimmie” McCullough, stole more than $1 million in oil and gas interests, all with the help of none other than Judge Robert M. Stem. You can “like” the LawFlog Facebook page to get the latest in your news feed. Stay tuned.

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