Crime

Prominent Lawyer Jumps Bail And Becomes A Fugitive... May Not Be A Lawyer Much Longer

This sounds bad.

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Jason Lee Van Dyke

Jason Van Dyke is the sort of prominent attorney that many people may not even realize they know. The Texas attorney is the current leader of the infamous “Proud Boys,” a violent, racist, misogynist, anti-LGBTQ organization (except, I suppose, in New York, where the name was incorporated as “a queer, pan-gender, multi-racial organization” in a poke in the eye of the scumbags) that goes around starting fights and then claiming the left-leaning people they provoked are the real culprits.

Van Dyke took over the group a couple months ago when its prior leader decided to hastily distance himself from the petri dish he’d been running. Van Dyke had already been working as the group’s lawyer so it was an easy transition.

It also came at roughly the same time Van Dyke filed a police report claiming someone broke into his truck and stole all of his guns. When law enforcement showed up, they identified some gaping holes in Van Dyke’s story and surmised that the whole affair was a clumsy effort at insurance fraud. Van Dyke denies that allegation but he was arrested nonetheless and posted a $1000 bond.

Independently of all this, Van Dyke is suing a man named Thomas Retzlaff for $100 million because, Van Dyke alleges, Retzlaff cost Van Dyke his respectable job by pointing out to the Victoria County District Attorney’s Office that its assistant was neck deep in recognized hate groups. We’ve been monitoring this comical Rule 11 violation unfold for a while but the most recent filing brought some eye-popping news: Van Dyke is seemingly a fugitive from justice now, requiring the obligatory search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area.

In a motion filed yesterday, the defendant asks the court to take judicial notice of some interesting Texas court documents:

Attached are Certified Copies of court records from Denton County, Texas, establishing that plaintiff Jason Lee Van Dyke was recently found guilty of the criminal offense of bail jumping, and that this conviction has been reported to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

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Uh oh. According to Retzlaff’s filing, Van Dyke’s now been missing for three weeks. He’d better be looking over his shoulder for Dog the Bounty Hunter.

One presumes this bail jumping conviction judgment won’t go over well with those presiding over his disbarment proceedings, scheduled for February 22. (UPDATE: I changed the word “conviction” because the judgment finding his bond forfeit and declaring him AWOL provided that Van Dyke could cure the judgment and avoid a final conviction if he showed up and provided a good excuse.)

UPDATE: We’ve started hearing rumors that he’s turned himself in.

(Check out the filing, with the attached Texas records, on the next page…)

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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