The file reviews a few details. The Chancellor ruled he would waive "bond and accounting" if all funds were placed into a bank account. Mr. McClinton also retained attorney Glover Russell, Jr. at Watkins Ludlam for a tax opinion regarding the estate taxes. The guardianship was closed in August 11, 2006 when Damon Clinton turned 21 (Yes, I know the court papers say "Demon" but in reality his name is "Damon").
What is interesting is Mr. Glover filed a petition to compel an accounting on November 21, 2005. Mr. Glover stated his representation was terminated on November 16, 2005 but that Mr. McClinton told him $300,000 was withdrawn from the estate without a court order and the loan remained unpaid. Mr. Russell also stated he was also told $1 million belonging to the Guardianship was "never deposited" into the estate. Mr. Russell said the check for $1 million was deposited into Mr. Brown's account and "was spent by Michael Brown and never deposited into the estate". Mr. Russell asked the court to require McClinton's father to account for the $300,000, account for the $1 million, and appoint a representative for Mr. Ward.
Mr. Glover also included a promissory note for $300,000 dated February 11, 2011 signed by Linus Shackelford as an exhibit to the petition. Mr. Shackelford signed individually and as President of Lakeland Place, LLC. The note gives 20 acres owned by Mr. Shackelford as security for the loan. Exhibit B is a copy of a check signed by Mr. McClinton made out to Michael. Brown.
There is no disposition or adjudication of the petition in the file. There is one document that states it was discussed at a hearing, but there are no documents stating it was dismissed, granted, or anything (I will leave open the possibility the Chancellor is reviewing the file as he keeps it in his chambers and some documents are in his actual possession.). However, a motion to recuse filed by Mr. Brown on February 1, 2012 states Chancellor Robinson heard the petition on August 11, 2006, "heard all evidence, and signed off on accountings and closed the guardianship."
Several accountings were provided to the court but Chancellor Thomas (Case was assigned to him after Chancellor Robinson left the bench.) ruled these were completely fraudulent.
The elder McClinton filed a petition to reopen the guardianship in 2009 and claimed "money was intercepted by Attorney Mike Brown and placed into his trust account." The petition didn't stop there but accused the lawyer of "forging" Thomas McClinton's signature "in order to obtain the funds that were supposed to go to the guardianship." The petition also alleges Mr. Brown "checked out the entire guardianship file and has not returned it." Mr. Mclinton claimed "part or all of the fraudulently obtained money has been invested in a cemetary run or owned by Linus Shackelford." The petition also includes a promissory note for $507,745 at an interest rate of 6% payable within one year signed by Michael J. Brown on November 29, 2007.
Mr. McClinton then filed a petition to compel an accounting on December 2, 2010 to "determine where and why the money from the guardianship" went to Brown and Shackelford. The petition also asks for "accounting" information for two checks in the amounts of $205,020 and $32,725 "cashed and posted" on or about January 6, 2003. The petition also asks the Court to order Mr. Shackelford to show he repaid the loan.
Mr. Brown filed a motion asking Chancellor Thomas to recuse himself from the case. Mr. Brown alleged the Chancellor and Brent Hazard, the attorney for Mr. McClinton, were friends.
What is really funny is Michael J. Brown informed the court he was unable to locate the file or the bank statements. He would love to find them, you see. He would really, really, like to provide them to the court. BUT there were two major water leaks in his office and many old closed files and bank records were destroyed and lost. Mr. Brown also defends himself by arguing "There has never been any written statement offered to any court that any unauthorized transfer had occurred." Mr. Brown filed a Notice to Court of Unavailability of File and Bank Statements on February 1, 2012. Yup, just like Vann Leonard. Hard drive crashed. Water damage. Dog ate my homework.
Stay tuned. There is more to come.
25 comments:
I thought all lawyers were honest
people...... probably just a misunderstanding.
Lies... Lies... and more lies....
I thought Linus Shackelford's long winded comment in a previous post stated he didn't know the money came from this guardianship.... yet he signed a promissory note agreeing to pay DeMon McClinton back.
This thief needs to be locked up.
Where is the money? - Apparently that is an expensive sign, because that is all he has managed to get "developed" in the last 12-15 years.
It looks a lot different than the fake images he has on his website.
What a joke!!
11:33 It's 99% of lawyers who give the other 1% a bad name......
Where is Brown now? I am sure there are more DaMon McClintons out there or are they just not as keen to what has happened being illegal than just a matter of fact of them not knowing any better and were preyed upon by a crooked lawyer...... What wll happen to Brown, he thinks he is so smart will he get away with all this?
Two things - was the $300,000 note from Shackelford part of the $500K+ mentioned in previous posts, or in addition to that? Also, Brown can fuss and fume about floods, dogs, or whatever, but where is the $3 million now? Does he really expect anyone to believe that he just set it aside and forgot what happened to it? Come on, now.
Has the court ordered Brown's assets frozen? What about Shackelford's?
The court ordered Brown's and Shackelford's assets frozen and Brown is out on $100,000 bail. The only other person that I know of that has come forward was the guy that paid Brown $200,000 to - get this - help his client get money from a trust her grandmother had set up. Brown was publicly censured by the bar association a few years ago for talking a client into loaning him the proceeds of a settlement they got and promised a piece of another case in return (wonder if it's the same case as the grandmother's trust?). He was supposed to have recommended that the client get outside counsel, and it's unethical for a lawyer to give a non-lawyer a piece of another case.
"If you can't come to me, I'll come to you. And I don't get nothin' less I collect faw you."
Bet Shackelford didn't tell the boy the property was under water before he leveraged the 20 acres. Not to mention that there is a $331,000 IRS lien filed in Rankin Chancery on Shackelford.
whatever accounting was filed in 2006 was obviously fraudulent. The judge would not have approved the accounting if it reflected that the bank account was short, given that no withdrawals had been authorized by the court (none are reflected in the docket sheet).
The lawyer must have rigged up his own accounting to reflect a proper balance but supplied no corroborating documentation such as a bank statement. It should have been a red flag.
Since the child inherited 3M, but not all of it was stolen, I'm surprised that still no bank statement has been attached to any petition filed with the court. Unless I missed something, surely some of the money went to a bank.
I know it's easy to bash lawyers if you have never needed one, and especially if you screwed somebody over and were held accountable by the other guy's lawyer. But this guy is a thief. Lawyering was just his day job.
Very interesting. Thanks for the digging, KF.
Judge Thomas said none of the money was placed in an account.
For the record Judge Thomas can't stand Brent Hazzard. Nice try getting a recusal for that one Mike Brown.
Has anybody explained how Rebecca Henry ended up with 3 million dollars in the first place?
5:50, I tried earlier, but for some reason my answer didn't fly through the net.
In the mid-1960's, the FCC took the license for WLBT-TV away from Lamar Life Insurance and "gave" it to a new group headed by Aaron Henry. The reason for the transfer was that FCC didn't think WLBT was properly covering news and in essence was discriminating against blacks, black organizations, etc. This transfer made Aaron Henry (State President of NAACP, a pharmacist in Clarksdale, and later a State Representative) an instant millionaire.
Some twenty years later, mid-1980's I believe, WLBT was sold to a Texas group. If memory serves me correctly, sale price was around $10 million. DeMon's mother (according to court documents, Aaron Henry's sister, but according to WLBT, Aaron's daughter) probably
inherited this $3 million.
Aaron Henry did well in other venues as well. In 1980, while Jimmy Carter was president and Lester Howell was head of the FmHA Housing Division, Lester awarded many million dollars of low-interest loans to Henry and had a plan to put Henry in charge of ALL labor housing in the Mississippi Delta. Second plan failed with the demise of Carter to Reagan. Howell eventually was indicted for multiple counts of corruption. Dozens of developers were convicted and testified of their "payoffs" to Howell, but Henry took the stand and testified that Howell was "only trying to help the po' folks". Hung jury.
Henry's first millions came from the WLBT license. Additional millions came from political connections during the Carter years.
and now the question is:what will happen to the cemetery? Quite a few graves and plots sold it appears.
Is it a cemetery or is. All the money burried there?????
wowzers 5:50..I remember a lot of that now..thanks for shedding light on it again...yet another reason not to watch WLBT...other than Bert and Marsha!
11:32 Your info did show up earlier, but I think I saw it in another thread. Strange.
This is not about WLBT, it is about a sleaze names Michael j. Brown and how he took peoples money and used their unfortunate ability to see through his BS, if they had been fortunate to know how all worked they would have never hired him. That is why there are others out there but they just simply did not know better and I am sure when they did question him he let them know they did not know how all this worked plus I would imagine he is good at intimidation. So now let's see which judges makes him fold to his intimation!
Brown does try to intimidate and punch whatever buttons he can and yes, he is a total sleezebag. I've seen him in court, and he's not much of a lawyer either.
When I question mike Brown he always said letme handle it I was trying to be the atty I said if I had a lawyer I would not have to act like one,,,,,,,,,why does the bar let him by this mess..????????
When I question mike brown he said I was trying to the the atty. I told him I had one I would not have to act like one....Why would the bar let get away with all this?????
Michael J. Brown thinks he is smarter than anyone, hopefully the joke will be on him now. The sad thing there are people being taken by him right now, he preys on people who do not know a lot and especially since he is in all this trouble they have no clue. What they do not realize he is not suppose to be acting in any type of an attorney but he is so smart no ne will stop him.
its easy to cash and deposit check when you have relatives working at the bank abt or around all that time mike brown thinks he is such a charmeralways saying he wins most of his cases rags he has connections some judges owe him favors?..............
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