I have said, more than once, that I am an equal opportunity observer of hyenas on fire. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or Communist, I don’t care. (Except maybe I take more joy out of Communist hyenas on fire.)
(“Communist Hyenas On Fire” is the name of my next band. We play covers of Trotsky Icepick.)
Also, I couldn’t pass this up because: strippers, always with the strippers.
Neil Friske is a Republican Michigan House representative. I’ve seen him described as a “prominent Second Amendment activist”. I’d never heard of him previously, but perhaps his 2A activism is more prominent in Michigan.
Rep. Friske was arrested early Thursday morning.
Lansing Police Public Information Director Jordan Gulkis confirmed to the Free Press. In a statement posted to Friske’s Facebook page, his campaign called the arrest “highly suspect.”
Gulkis said LPD officers were dispatched initially to the nearby 2100 block of Forest Road to respond to reports of a male with a gun, “as well as possible shots that were fired,” she said over email.
Friske was arrested “for a felony-level offense” after officers made contact. Additional investigation remains ongoing, Gulkis said. LPD expects to present the case to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office for review Friday.
Other reports (attributed to “sources”) claim that he “sexually assaulted an exotic dancer and then chased her with a firearm”.
Rep. Friske’s office denies the allegations, and claims the timing is suspicious: he’s currently running for re-election.
In other news that doesn’t quite rise to the level of flames, but definitely involves a lot of smoke: The FBI raided the home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao yesterday. Nobody knows why, and the FBI isn’t saying much.
By the way, Mayor Thao is dealing with a recall election this November, a fact I did not previously know.
FotB RoadRich sent over a story (by way of Must Read Texas) that also isn’t quite flames, yet, but definitely a lot of smoke. Let me see if I can summarize it for you:
David R. Jones was a Federal bankruptcy judge in Houston.
Kirkland & Ellis is the world’s largest law firm.
Jones became the nation’s busiest bankruptcy judge after Kirkland, the top U.S. firm for advising financially-troubled companies, steered most of its largest chapter 11 cases to his court.
Elizabeth Freeman is an attorney who worked as co-council with Kirkland on bankruptcy cases in Jones’s court. She worked for a law firm, Jackson Walker, until December of 2022, when she left and started her own law office.
And you guessed it: Jones and Freeman were allegedly lovers.
And it gets better:
The anonymous letter first went to Michael Van Deelen, a former high-school math teacher with a history of filing lawsuits against people he believed had wronged him. He was angry over a bankruptcy plan from Kirkland—approved by Jones—that wiped out Van Deelen’s $146,541 investment in an oil-and-gas drilling company that had gone bust.
Van Deelen sent a copy of the letter to Jackson Walker, where Freeman was a partner, and the law firm questioned her. Freeman acknowledged a romantic relationship with Jones that she said had ended about a year earlier. Jackson Walker forwarded the letter to Jones and shared its allegations with Kirkland, according to court papers filed by both firms.
Van Deelen tried to submit the letter to court in his effort to disqualify Jones from the bankruptcy case involving his lost investment. In a court hearing, a Kirkland partner argued that the letter was unsubstantiated and moved to exclude it as evidence. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur, Jones’s former law partner and a court colleague, sided with Kirkland. He denied Van Deelen’s request. Jones later signed an order to permanently seal the letter from public view.
Jackson Walker didn’t publicly disclose what it learned about the Jones-Freeman relationship at the time. Kirkland also kept quiet about the allegation. Jones remained Houston’s chief bankruptcy judge, and Freeman continued to work on Kirkland cases involving Jones.
So a judge and a lawyer were engaged in a pretty serious conflict of interest, and the two law firms involved plus the Federal bankruptcy court conspired to cover it up.
Months later, Van Deelen found the evidence he wanted on a website that searches public records for personal information. “All I had for proof was that anonymous letter,” he said. “Then I asked TruthFinder.” He learned from property records on the Harris County website that Jones and Freeman had bought a home together in Houston in 2017 and still owned it.
Armed with that information, Van Deelen filed a lawsuit against Jones in October. This time, he included the property records with the anonymous letter. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal shortly after, Jones confirmed the relationship.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was alerted and initiated an investigation against Jones. After a little more than a week, the court’s chief judge said she found probable cause that Jones had committed misconduct regarding his intimate relationship with Freeman. Jones resigned days later.
I don’t know that there’s anything actually criminal here, though I suspect there is if someone cares to look hard enough. But this seems like the kind of thing that should get people disbarred from the practice of law. (And removed from the bench, but Jones is already gone. It seems like Judge Isgur is still a bankruptcy judge, though.)