bar grievance against Mr. Willis

3/21/2015
Submitted Data
Online Grievance Form
Mar 21, 2015 9:49 AM
I. General Information
Have you contacted the Client­Attorney Assistance Program?*
No
II. Information About You
Salutation
Mr.
First Name
Ty
Last Name
Clevenger
Address
1095 Meadow Hill Drive
Lavon, TX 75166
Home Phone
979­985­5289
Cell Phone
979­985­5289
Email Address
tyclevenger@yahoo.com
Date of Birth
Apr 18, 1969
Employer's Name
n/a
II. Information About You ­ Additional
Do you understand and write in the English language?
Yes
Are you a Judge?
No
III. Information About Attorney
Attorney Barcard Number
21653500
Attorney First Name
Gregory
Attorney Middle Name
A.
Attorney Last Name
Willis
Attorney Address (Please include street, city and zip)
2100 Bloomdale Road, Suite 100 McKinney, TX 75071­8318
http://cdc.texasbar.com/cdc/Request/RequestSummary?requestBindingID=1
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3/21/2015
Submitted Data
Attorney Work Phone
972­548­4323
III. Information About Attorney ­ Grievance Details
Have you or a member of your family filed a grievance about this attorney previously?
No
Have you or a member of your family ever filed an appeal with the Board of Disciplinary Appeals about
this attorney?
No
Please select from the following:
This attorney was hired to represent someone else
Please give the date the attorney was hired or appointed.
n/a
Please state what the attorney was hired or appointed to do.
He is the elected district attorney of Collin County.
What was the fee arrangement with the attorney?
n/a
How much did you pay the attorney?
n/a
III. Information About Attorney ­ Continued
If you did not hire the attorney, what is your connection with the attorney? Explain briefly
I am a resident of Collin County, where he serves as district attorney.
Are you currently represented by an attorney?
No
Do you claim the attorney has an impairment, such as depression or a substance use disorder?
No
Did the attorney ever make any statements or admissions to you or in your presence that would indicate
that the attorney may be experiencing an impairment, such as depression or a substance use disorder?
No
IV. Information About Your Grievance
In which city did the activity you are complaining about occur?
McKinney
In which county did the activity you are complaining about occur?
Collin
IV. Information About Your Grievance ­ Continued
I have attached a March 21, 2015 letter to Mr. Willis which I incorporate by reference. As set forth in that
letter, it appears that Mr. Willis is violating Disciplinary Rule 1.06.
http://cdc.texasbar.com/cdc/Request/RequestSummary?requestBindingID=1
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3/21/2015
Submitted Data
IV. Information About Your Grievance ­ Supporting Documents
2015.03.21 Letter to Greg Willis.pdf
V. HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THE STATE BAR OF TEXAS ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE PROCESS?
How did you learn about the State Bar of Texas attorney grievance process?
Attorney
http://cdc.texasbar.com/cdc/Request/RequestSummary?requestBindingID=1
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TY CLEVENGER
Attorney at Law
1095 Meadow Hill Drive
Lavon, Texas 75166
telephone: 979.985.5289
facsimile: 979.530.9523
tyclevenger@yahoo.com
Texas Bar No. 24034380
March 21, 2015
The Hon. Greg Willis, District Attorney
Collin County Courthouse
2100 Bloomdale Road, Suite 100
McKinney, Texas 75071
Re:
Kenneth Warren Paxton, Jr.
Mr. Willis:
In my March 6, 2015 letter to the 199th District Court grand jury, I asked that you
recuse your office from any investigation of Attorney General Ken Paxton because of
your personal friendship with Mr. Paxton. As I explained in that letter, you have created
an appearance that your office is stonewalling any investigation of Mr. Paxton until the
three-year limitations period expires on his alleged securities violations.
Since sending the letter, I have obtained additional information about your
relationship with Mr. Paxton, and I now believe that you have a serious conflict of
interest. According to records filed with the Texas Secretary of State, you and Mr.
Paxton are business partners. As a result, any investigation of Mr. Paxton's shady
business interests would likely result in an investigation of your own business interests.
In a May 1, 2014 Texas Franchise Tax Public Information Report, you and Mr.
Paxton are listed among the 19 co-owners of Unity Resources, LLC in Plano. Your
names do not appear on the tax reports prior to 2014, so it appears that you both became
owners in 2013 or 2014. And according to a May 4, 2014 article in the Dallas Morning
News, you and Mr. Paxton are also among the 11 partners in Eldorado-Collin, L.P. Citing
campaign spokesmen for Mr. Paxton, the newspaper reported that you and your
associates bought 35 acres in Collin County in 2004 for about $700,000, then flipped a
little less than half the property about eighteen months later for just over $1 million. The
property was later used as the site of the Collin County Appraisal District building.
The article raises serious questions about whether you, Mr. Paxton, and your
associates were the beneficiaries of insider information. At the very least, it appears that
you were trading on your political connections to make a fast buck. But I believe the
Morning News vastly understated the problem.
Rather than rely on campaign spokesmen for the sales price of the property, I
reviewed some of the actual transaction records. According to the special warranty deed
on file in the county clerk's office and dated December 3, 2004, your partnership
purchased the 35 acres with a $115,000 promisory note from North Dallas Bank and
Trust, then sold 18 of those acres on June 30, 2006 for $7,335,000. If that is so, the
disparity between the purchase price and the sales price is many times greater than what
the Morning New reported. Even if one ignores the remaining 17 acres that your
partnership retained after the 2006 sale, the sales price still represented a profit of more
than 6,000 percent in less than two years. If you factor in the 17 acres and assume that
each of the 35 acres was originally worth the same amount, that's a profit of more than
13,000 percent in less than two years.
This raises some serious questions. Did you, Mr. Paxton, and/or your partners
have inside information that the county appraisal district was hoping to locate its
headquarters on the property? Did taxpayers have to pay millions more for the appraisal
district site because of the actions of your partnership? What other elected officials in
Collin County are part of the partnership? Do you and Mr. Paxton have other joint
business interests besides Unity Resources and Eldorado-Collin?
For purposes of events in 2006, the limitations periods has expired on most
potential charges, although the limitations period for engaging in organized criminal
activity does not begin to run until the last act in furtherance of the criminal enterprise.
See Vincent v. State, 945 S.W.2d 348, 350 (Tex.App.–Houston [1st Dist.] 1997, pet.
denied). Likewise, the limitations period for a federal bank fraud charge is ten years (and
the bank fraud statute is notoriously broad). Regardless of whether the limitations
periods have expired, the grand jury may still issue reports related to misconduct by
public officials, even where no criminal charges are contemplated. See, e.g., Ferguson v.
Houston Press Co., 1 S.W.2d 387 (Tex.App. - Texarkana 1927), affirmed 12 S.W.2d 125
(Tex.Com.App. 1929).
The grand jury could choose to issue a report about whether Collin County
officials have enriched themselves at the expense of taxpayers, if for no other reason than
to protect the future interests of Collin County taxpayers. If something unethical or illegal
happened ten years ago, the grand jury would be in the best position to determine what
happened, how it happened, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
That said, my review of your business dealings was very superficial, so I must wonder
what sort of transactions you, Mr. Paxton, and your partners have been involved in since
2006, whether with Unity Resources, Eldorado-Collin, or some other entity. Perhaps the
grand jury might want to question you and Mr. Paxton about that, too.
According to your official website, your office has twenty-four commissioned
investigators and a Special Prosecution Division that prosecutes “financially motivated
criminal activity, organized crime, public integrity matters, and other complex or
sensitive cases...” None of your staff are going to investigate Mr. Paxton, however, if
they know that the investigation may lead back to you.
Similarly, the Texas Rangers will not investigate because their policy on
government corruption investigations requires a prior written commitment from the local
prosecutor (i.e., you) that any case they bring will be prosecuted. I seriously doubt that
you made a commitment to the Rangers that you will prosecute your friend and business
partner.
In light of all of this, you had (and have) a duty under the state bar rules to recuse
yourself from Mr. Paxton's case. See Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct
1.06. You cannot represent the interests of the State of Texas when those interests might
conflict with your interests or your business partner's interests.
It is the policy of this state that a state officer or state employee may not have a
direct or indirect interest, including financial and other interests, or engage in a
business transaction or professional activity, or incur any obligation of any nature
that is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of the officer's or
employee's duties in the public interest.
Tex. Govt. Code § 572.001(a); see also § 572.051(a).
If you do not recuse yourself voluntarily, the grand jury could ask the court to
remove you involuntarily. The Thirteenth Court of Appeals has held that “[a] judge has
the authority, as well as an obligation, to appoint an attorney pro tem to assist a grand
jury that intends to criminally investigate the district attorney.” In re Guerra, 235 S.W.3d
392, 414 (Tex.App.–Corpus Christi 2007, orig. proceeding), disapproved on other
grounds by In re Blevins, --- S.W.3d ----, 2013 WL 5878910 (Tex. 2013).
I urge you to recuse yourself from any investigation of Mr. Paxton, and I further
urge you to disclose any other business relationships that you have or have had with Mr.
Paxton.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ty Clevenger
cc:
The Hon. Angela Tucker, Judge
199th District Court
Grand Jurors
199th District Court
Mr. J. Kevin McClendon, Asst. U.S. Attorney
Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas
Mr. Thomas M. Class, Sr., Special Agent in Charge
FBI Dallas Division