A whistleblower claimed that Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins attempted to bribe him to ignore a $1.4 million debt that Jenkins owed before firing him, according to court documents filed on his behalf.
After celebrity attorney Brian “The Strong Arm” Loncar died of a cocaine overdose in 2016 following his daughter’s suicide, Clay Jenkins allegedly began forcing his way into becoming the owner of Loncar’s lucrative legal practice, as reported by The Dallas Express.
During this time, Jenkins allegedly began acting as the manager of Loncar & Associates despite not being installed by the court as the executor of the estate yet, according to court documents.
Brian Loncar’s father, Phil Loncar, claimed in court filings that after his son’s death, Jenkins “immediately called meetings of the Loncar Law Firm attorneys and personnel and pronounced that he was in charge of the firm from that point forward.”
Prior to Brian Loncar’s passing, Jenkins had commonly worked cases referred to him by Loncar’s firm. He was then supposed to send Loncar a portion of the proceeds in accordance with Texas law.
However, when Jenkins started acting as manager of the firm, the chief financial officer (CFO), Toby Toudouze, allegedly confronted him about $1.4 million in attorney referral fees that were never paid.
Several other involved parties, including the estate’s original executor and Loncar’s widow, also suggested that he owed at least $1 million to the firm.
At the funeral of Brian Loncar, his father claimed that Jenkins told him that he “was purportedly material to the financial wellbeing of the firm based upon the amount of referral fees he had paid, and that he owed — including over $1 million at the time of the funeral.”
Legal documents filed on Toudouze’s behalf further claim that “at the time of Brian Loncar’s death, Jenkins owed the Loncar Firm at least $1.4 million in unpaid referral fees … Toudouze, as the CFO of the Loncar Firm, was aware of the Unpaid Referral Fees and insisted that the fees be paid.”
“After Jenkins unlawfully and wrongfully took control of the Loncar firm,” Toudouze’s allegations continued, “he tried to get Toudouze to forego payment of the Unpaid Referral Fees.”
Toudouze, however, refused to waive the debt.
At that point, according to the CFO, “Jenkins offered a bribe to Toudouze – a share of the $1.4 Million if Toudouze went along.”
Toudouze claims to have rejected the alleged bribe and was subsequently fired by Jenkins.
He then sued Toudouze, claiming that the longtime employee and associate of Loncar had stolen items from the company. After dragging out for several years, Jenkins’ claims were dismissed as a “nonsuit with prejudice” in July 2022.
Jenkins had also apparently sought to compel the former CFO to testify in another lawsuit regarding a shell company called KMA Capital that Brian Loncar had set up to allegedly hide money from his wife.
Toudouze suggested that this, too, was a part of an effort by Jenkins “to frighten Mr. Toudouze to keep him from exposing Clay Jenkin’s ‘questionable activities’ as Executor of Brian Loncar’s Estate and the person running the Loncar Law Firm.”
In fact, however, Jenkins himself has sent over $450,000 in attorney referral fees to KMA Capital, potentially violating Texas law, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Employees of Loncar’s firm also claimed that Jenkins promised that he could use his position as county judge to make law enforcement officials alter their testimony in court, as described in legal filings.