Attorney Ordered to Pay Back Funds to Sullivan Estate

Ten lawyers—one of them present by telephone—converged in a small Tom Green County courtroom before Judge Brock Jones on Sept. 14 to discuss taking up sanctions against attorney John Young for violating a court order to cease using funds from the estate of deceased multi-millionaire John Edward Sullivan.

Present at the hearing were lawyers and their lawyers, representing clients in two civil disputes over the Sullivan estate with claims to a slice of the dead man’s fortune, plus Young’s criminal defense and civil defense attorneys, as well as the estate’s temporary administrator, Michael Deadman, and his legal counsel.

The hearing was called to allow the lawyers to voice their concerns over Young’s continued handling of the estate’s money after Judge Jones turned the estate over to Deadman on January 22.

The money, attorneys alleged, amounted to some $90,102.32 used largely to fund Young’s criminal defense for charges he is facing that include the alleged forgery of his former client’s (Sullivan) will and his testimony on its legitimacy before the probate court. Other expenditures included making final payments for improvements on his Sweetwater law office.

As discussion on the topic heated up, the attorneys entered into negotiations with the judge on setting a reasonable time frame for the money to be paid back. Not all were satisfied with that proposal, however.

“It’s not the temporary administrator’s job to extend credit to Mr. Young because he violated the court’s order,” said Houston lawyer Hank Stout, who is representing an alleged sexual assault victim of Sullivan’s who is now an adult.

Stout, heard over speakerphone in the courtroom, suggested that Young ask his criminal defense attorney, Danny Hurley, of Lubbock, for his $80,000 back and pay the fees off himself rather than making payments to Deadman to go back into the estate.

Mark Brown, a lawyer representing Sullivan’s purported half-sister, Louise Chabot, in a will contest suit, said he felt the money missing from the estate was of a higher priority than Hurley’s attorney fees, and should therefore be paid back immediately.

The court didn’t agree. After several minutes of discussion, Judge Jones ordered Young to pay back the $90,000 within six months at a 5 percent interest rate. The attorney has also been ordered to submit another supplemental accounting of his use of the estate funds within a month of the hearing.

The multiple cases surrounding the handwritten will have been dragging on since a month after the will was probated on June 16, 2014. The first contest came from a former a friend of Sullivan’s, who claimed his business records were still stowed away in one of the dead millionaire’s rental properties.

Chabot then surfaced on July 28, 2014, when she filed a motion for a new trial via attorney Mark Brown—who also represented Victor Samaniego, the friend—presenting herself as an heir to Sullivan’s estate as his long lost sister.

By Sept. 29, 2014, Young had been sued in another civil suit by a young man and his mother, who claimed that the man was entitled to $1 million of the estate, which had allegedly been promised to him by Sullivan when he was a boy and was reportedly being sexually abused by the deceased.

In the midst of all that, Young, Sullivan’s criminal defense attorney through allegations of child pornography, and Ray Zapata, the millionaire’s bail bondsman, were both indicted on four felony counts apiece that included the allegations of will forgery, theft and perjury in the probate hearing.

In the 15 months since the will was probated and the various cases have prepared for trial, no real estimate of the funds remaining in the estate has been provided. Between Young’s first accounting and the 200-page second one, the only thing clear is that much of the money is either gone or facing major tax penalties.

At the hearing on Sept. 21, attorneys discussed $4 million located in overseas accounts. Temporary estate administrator Michael Deadman explained that because the money was hidden overseas it is subject to a 50 percent penalty for each year it was abroad. That money has been sitting in those accounts for roughly four years; the penalty would require the estate to pay $2 million per year, or $8 million total.

Another option, which requires quick action, is to pay a 25 percent penalty, or $1 million, on the total immediately, which would absolve the estate of the 50 percent penalty altogether.

But there is a statute of limitations on the 50 percent option, and if the Department of Justice doesn’t timely sue, the estate could end up not having to pay anything.

Nobody knew exactly what that statute of limitations was at the hearing, and further research was decided upon before making a decision. Deadman did tell the court, however, that there is enough money left in the estate to pay the $1 million penalty. That offer has a short expiration date.

Final matters discussed at the hearing were the need to set a trial date for Chabot’s will contest case and issues attorneys in the civil suit filed by the alleged victim are having in obtaining records appointing the young man’s legal guardian.

Currently, the victim’s $1 million civil suit is scheduled for trial on Nov. 30, 2015. Both John Young and Ray Zapata’s criminal cases are set for trial on Jan. 19, 2016.

For a full index of coverage on all of the cases, including Sullivan's criminal case, the criminal cases filed against Zapata and Young, as well as both civil suits, click here.