"The suspension of Mr. Baron’s constitutional rights and seizure of his assets has absolutely no basis in law and is a gross violation of the US Constitution. . . .The District Court’s order appointing receiver was issued without due process for a clearly improper and unconstitutional purpose. The damages being inflicted upon Mr. Baron by virtue of the order are very real, harsh, irreparable and immediate."
”My concern is that the Fifth Circuit has to make a choice. Do they acknowledge that there are a bunch of dishonest attorneys who have tried, literally, to conspire together to steal money from Jeff? Or, do they throw Jeff under the bus to 'protect' the 'good name' of the legal profession?"
It is frightening to think that if an individual refuses to pay the excessive demands of an attorney or desires to object to grossly excessive fees sought by an attorney in a bankruptcy case, that instead of a right to trial by jury or impartial hearing before a judge, he can have all his assets and private documents immediately stripped from him, and become a ward of the court– incarcerated in ‘house arrest’ in one city, and prohibited from hiring legal counsel to protect his rights. The actions taken against Mr. Baron shock the conscious.
In an act unprecedented in the history of American jurisprudence, the District Court below granted a motion to seize all of an individual's assets in order to prevent them from hiring an attorney. Jeff Baron was warned that he was 'prohibited from retaining any legal counsel' and that if he did 'the Receiver may move the Court to find you in contempt. . . . Further, unless this court grants relief, Jeff Baron's savings accounts have been stripped from him forever. While this matter has been on appeal, the District Court has distributed essentially all of Jeff's savings account balances to the receiver and his law firm. The amount is staggering — almost a million dollars”.
There has been a complete breakdown of due process in the district court. Additionally, there is clear, long established, controlling precedent prohibiting the imposition of a receivership for the sake of having a receivership. Jeff Baron’s constitutional rights to due process, unreasonable seizure, to hire legal counsel, to travel, to work, to engage in commerce and business transactions, etc., have been suspended. Deprivation of constitutional rights is irreparable injury as a matter of law. Jeff Baron is also suffering very real irreparable injuries.
Prior to the filing of this appeal his (Jeff's) attorneys were told by the receiver that they were fired, and Mr. Baron was warned— including warnings made in writing—that he faced contempt and going to jail if he dared attempt to hire an attorney to protect his rights. The deprivations Mr. Baron’s has been—and at this hour is subject to— are grave. The District Court below suspended Mr. Baron’s constitutional right to own, access, and control his own property, for the purpose of denying Mr. Baron the ability to retain counsel. Such an order is unlawful and violates the US Constitution.
In a side-step of the Constitution, the District Court Judge and the receiver are in the active process of administering star-chamber ‘justice’ and determine who gets Mr. Baron’s money When a persons’ very right to control assets is stripped from them, a cascade of constitutional rights are impaired. It is the right to own and control property that is the cornerstone of a democratic society Mr. Baron is being deprived of the fundamental right to manage his own affairs, and make decisions about his own assets. He cannot travel, and cannot hire lawyers to defend himself. Mr. Baron’s health and medical condition as a very real matter have dramatically deteriorated under the stress of the receivership order in the past three weeks. Mr. Baron is unable to sleep and is suffering from frequent panic attacks, and nausea. Mr. Baron’s diabetes is worsening materially under the stress of the District Court’s order and he is no longer able to control his blood sugar level causing his blood glucose levels to jump over 500 (normal readings are less than 100). no party has a legitimate interest in denying Mr. Baron his constitutional right to legal counsel of his choice There is a compelling public interest in upholding the US Constitution
This Court seems intent on moving forward with setting up a kangaroo court with Mr. Vogel acting on behalf of this Court as prosecutor and judge. Accordingly, Mr. Baron needs access to his money to hire experienced trial counsel to defend each of the 'claims' solicited by the prosecutor/judge/receiver (Mr. Vogel)
Other than brutally punishing Baron— limiting his access to medical care, keeping him from owning an operating vehicle, traveling outside of Dallas, having heat or air-conditioning, being allowed to earn any money or engage in any business transactions, burning up his COBRA coverage, etc.— literally, the receivership has achieved nothing other than to: (1) prevent Baron from hiring any legal counsel, (2) create a list of groundless, non-diverse state law attorney fee ‘claims’ against Baron (solicited by Vogel); and (3) provide a platform for Sherman and Vogel to run up fee demands to a combined total of over FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. Notably, every possible thread of an excuse has been used by Vogel to churn the file to run up fees. When no excuses could be found, Vogel and his firm have fabricated new ones.
Sherman should have immediately closed the Ondova bankruptcy in September 2010 when there was the Million Dollars cash surplus. Instead, Sherman kept the bankruptcy open and ran up over $300,000.00 in additional attorney fees.
* Mr. Schepps has been working unpaid since November 2010.