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This article is eligible for CLE credit in exactly zero jurisdictions, but it should be because ethics credits are always in high demand and this case is a veritable survey of the field.

Dallas attorney Rayshun Jackson just pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money for someone he thought was a drug dealer. Instead, it was a DEA agent. Oops.

Recordings caught Jackson saying he could launder upwards of $500K/month in drug money for a 5 percent fee — which seems like a real bargain as far as billable hour rates go these days. The plan would involve setting up coin-operated laundry mats and car washes taking the concept of money laundering to a hitherto unprecedented level of literality.

But this isn’t Jackson’s only brush with becoming CLE fodder. From the Dallas Observer:

Since 2009, the State Bar of Texas has disciplined Jackson with a couple of public reprimands and several probated suspensions for failing to pay clients or give them an accurate accounting of funds they had and for failing to notify a federal judge about his suspension and practicing law nonetheless, according to court documents. His last suspension ended in late July, a few months after federal authorities arrested him on money laundering charges.

Then there’s the story of Jakadrien Turner, a woman falsely deported when she was a 15-year-old runaway trying to escape sexual abuse because she made up the name of a Colombian national when picked up for a shoplifting charge prompting ICE to actually send her to Colombia. When Turner finally made it back to the United States, Jackson came on as her attorney and the family says he immediately turned the case into his own publicity junket. And part of keeping the CNN interviews flowing was claiming that Turner had recanted her fake name to law enforcement who went ahead and deported her anyway:

She recalls Jackson taking her into his conference room at his office, which was then located on Turtle Creek Boulevard and Haskell Avenue in Dallas, and coaching her on what to say to reporters. She says he told her to tell reporters that she had, in fact, given her real name to immigration officials. She admits it was a lie, but she repeated the line several times.

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That seems… not great. To be fair, it is pure nonsense that ICE decided this 15-year-old who couldn’t speak Spanish was actually a recent arrival from Colombia but taking 5 minutes to conduct the most basic of inquiry isn’t really what American border policy is all about. Remember, these are the assholes who think 3-year-olds are competent to represent themselves in court.

Then, Jackson converted the whole thing into a novel:

A year after her stepfather’s conviction, Jakadrien’s mother told her that Jackson had written a self-published novel centered on her case. In his telling, Jackson had based the main character, Reece Ryan, on his life as a successful Dallas attorney. “I took those things and created this caricature that’s much better than I am,” he told The Dallas Morning News. “From there, I wanted to take some of my real-life experiences or cases. One being the Don Hill case that involved city corruption and bribery, extortion. And the other involving a 15-year-old who had been deported to Colombia and kind of utilized those cases as a base for my storyline. And then it kind of warped into something that was much bigger and different than those.”

Jackson didn’t pay the family anything for using the broad strokes of their story. Fictionalizing events doesn’t necessarily obligate the author to compensate or secure releases from the actual participants, however when the author is writing about a thinly veiled client, not only does the public pretty clearly draw a line between the character and the client, but there’s a risk that client confidences are being revealed under the cover of fiction. This may not be an ethical breach but it raises some eyebrows considering the whole tapestry here.

Jackson faces five years when he’s sentenced early next year. As the agent put it, “He’s a thug. He’s just got a law degree.”

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Which is yet another reminder that the most important thing for protecting the public is definitely a one-shot doctrinal test and not, you know, anything that might have deterred this guy at any point along the way.

‘He’s a thug. He’s just got a law degree’: Texas attorney admits conspiring to launder drug money [MarketWatch]
Wrongly Deported as a Teen, Jakadrien Turner Speaks Out About the Lawyer Who Defended Her [Dallas Observer]


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.