A Dallas County district judge has warned lawyers for both sides in a high-profile civil case that she’ll throw them in jail if they behave in ways she deems unprofessional.
Judge Ashley Wysocki made the comments last week at the conclusion of a hearing on a motion for sanctions in a lawsuit by Ashley Paige Reynolds, who claims she was physically assaulted and falsely imprisoned by Jeff Gladney, a pro football player most recently with the Minnesota Vikings.
In August, after Reynolds filed her civil suit, Gladney, a standout cornerback at Texas Christian University from 2016 to 2019, was indicted on a felony assault charge. He was promptly released by the Vikings.
Reynolds and Gladney, according to court documents, had a romantic relationship that went sour when, last April, she saw messages on his phone to another woman for whom he’d bought $700 Louis Vuitton sunglasses. An argument ensued that, Reynolds claims, escalated into a violent attack against her by the 5-foot-10-inch, 190-pound athlete.
Both the civil case and the criminal prosecution are pending.
Reynolds’s lawyer in the civil suit, Michael Hurst of Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann of Dallas, filed for sanctions in December, asking Wysocki to take action against Gladney’s lawyer, Michael Minns of Houston, for, among other things, calling Hurst “a G-d d–n racist” (Gladney is black, Reynolds white), pejoratively referring to Hurst as gay, ridiculing Hurst for advertising that he is a “super lawyer,” and displaying a “misogynistic” attitude toward Reynolds during her deposition Nov. 30. Minns denies making any homophobic or misogynistic comments.
Hurst’s motion for sanctions asks that Minns be ordered to donate at least $1,000 “to an organization that provides assistance, advocacy, and support to victims of LGBTQ hate,” to volunteer at least 15 hours in pro bono service to such an organization and to donate a like amount to the Dallas Women’s Lawyers Association.
According to Reynold’s deposition transcript, Minns referred to Hurst as “this guy in those funny boots,” a reference to Hurst’s “handmade, expensive Texas boots,” and said, in response to Hurst’s accusation that Minns had made homophobic slurs, “Do you want a hug?” Minns also referred to Hurst as “Mr. Straight, Gay, whatever the hell you are,” and told Hurst, “Quit flirting with me.”
In response Minns, a former Golden Gloves boxing champion, accused Hurst of lying; of claiming Minns was “bleeding” his client by needlessly delaying pretrial proceedings; of telling Minns “f*** you” three times before a court reporter began transcribing the Reynolds deposition; of concealing that his client had slept with Gladney more than once after she filed her lawsuit; and of taking part in “an elaborate blackmail scheme” in which Reynolds allegedly sought to coerce Gladney into paying a large settlement to stop her from pursuing a criminal complaint against him.
“In a very short period of time,” Minns wrote, “Mr. Hurst has become a competitor for foul, below-the-belt litigation techniques – lies,… disparaging counsel, and revealing a lack of frankness and candor with this court.”
Hurst, a former president of the Dallas Bar Association, wrote, “Mr. Minns’ unprofessional, aggressive, and offensive pattern of behavior over the course of the past four months should not go unpunished.”
In a hearing on the motion for sanctions Jan. 19, Wysocki made clear that she’d had a bellyful of the bickering by both sides.
Without ruling on the motion, she instructed Hurst and Minns to resume Reynolds’s deposition.
“Essentially,” she said, “I’m going to give you a chance to correct the behavior that is a problem, and go forward and show me that it is not going to be repeated.”
If she hears of any further inappropriate behavior, she added, “I won’t be ordering sanctions. I will be putting someone in jail for contempt.”
The judge, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Greg Abbott to succeed Bonnie Lee Goldstein, now a justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas, was particularly troubled by Hurst’s allegation that Minns made homophobic comments, an allegation Minns emphatically denies.
“Any type of reference, comments, relating to someone’s sexuality,” Wysocki said, “is just so unacceptable for me that you should understand by this discussion that it will not happen in a proceeding that’s in my court.”
She continued, “You can be a zealous advocate, and you can ask hard questions without attacking the other attorneys or the other side. Does everybody understand?”
Minns, who attended the hearing, and Lynn Pinker lawyers representing Hurst, who did not attend, said they understood.
Minns told The Texas Lawbook in an interview, “I do not take exception to the judge’s ruling. I’m glad she made it. I think it was a wise decision on her part. There’s been too much heat in this case. It was appropriate to tell both sides to cool it.”
If the conduct by both sides had been as described in the record, Hurst said, “the judge did the right thing. She was appalled by what she saw.” He added, however, that many of the exchanges between the two lawyers that Minns described “unequivocally did not happen.”
A “Lawyer’s Creed” adopted almost 35 years ago by the board of directors of the Dallas Bar Association states: “I revere the law, the system, and the profession, and I pledge that in my private and professional life, and in my dealings with fellow members of the bar, I will uphold the dignity and respect of each in my behavior toward others…
“I will be guided by a fundamental sense of integrity and fair play; I know that effective advocacy does not mean hitting below the belt… I recognize that effective advocacy does not require antagonistic or obnoxious behavior.”
Wysocki’s views on the subject were made clear in a March 2020 interview she granted to Attorney at Law magazine. Asked what advice she had for lawyers trying a case in her courtroom, she said:
“Be respectful. It can be easy to become emotional and frustrated when dealing with a difficult opposing party or attorney. Being rude to the other attorney, the other party, or the court is a mistake that takes away from your client’s case.”