Who's Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey Revisited

Speaker: ptd_ L

Javier: Today's episode is part 17 of The Who's Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey series. If you're just joining us and you've never listened to who's Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey, I recommend you go back to season 18. In fact, there's a playlist on Spotify that I'll link to the show notes. Start there. It's a wild ride.

Speaker: Obviously we're on part 17, so it's pretty good. Alright, let's get on with the show. There's breaking news in the case of LaDonna Humphrey versus Anthony Christopher LaDonna Humphrey has been locked. An legal battle with her former employer, Anthony Christopher. Since 2018, he fired her, accused her of harassment, and said that she destroyed evidence. A judge agreed and hit her with a $3.57 million judgment. Since then, LaDonna Humphrey has been fighting to appeal that decision, but now the fight is over. Why? Because the right to appeal her last shot at overturning this judgment was sold not to just anyone. It was sold to the very same person that she's been battling in court all these years. And here's the kicker. A federal appeals court said that the sale is perfectly legal. Her right to. Keep fighting. Gone. Now, if this all sounds confusing, you're not alone. Bankruptcy law isn't exactly made for podcast, but I am going to walk you through it step by step and break down how we got here, what it means, and why this case could have much bigger implications than just one judgment. I am Javier Eva, and this is Pretend Stories about Real People pretending to be someone else. Today's episode has been almost seven years in the making. On July 29th, a federal court delivered a ruling that changed everything. The court didn't side with LaDonna Humphrey, in fact. Three judges unanimously ruled against her, and this wasn't just a decision out of a local courtroom. This came from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most powerful courts in this country. It sits just one level below the US Supreme Court. That means that their ruling doesn't just apply to LaDonna. They shape how the law is interpreted across seven states, including Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. So when the eighth circuit says that it's legal for someone, even your opponent, to buy your right to appeal, that decision sets precedent And unless the Supreme Court decides to step in, which is rare, this is final. In this case, it means Ladonna's legal fight is over. The court says that the sale of her appeal rights stands and she can't undo it. But how did we get here and how is that even legal to sell someone's last shot at justice? Let's unpack it, but first, let's recap how we got here. It's been over a year since we covered this part of the story, so even I had to refresh my memory. If you recall, Anthony Christopher owned a clinic called Absolute Pediatric Therapy, where LaDonna worked briefly before being fired in 2018. That firing kicked off a long, bitter legal battle between the two of them. On September 23rd, 2019, a judge issued a final ruling against LaDonna Humphrey and the court found that she had sent fake anonymous emails, spoof messages aimed at hurting Anthony Christopher and his clinic, the judge. Said that LaDonna knew the messages were false and sent them anyway hoping to cause damage, and because of that, the court threw out her entire defense. Everything Anthony Christopher claimed in his lawsuit, the court treated as fact. All he had to do was prove how much harm was done. Witnesses testified the numbers added up, and in the end, the judge ordered LaDonna Humphrey to pay $3.57 million. Here's Anthony Christopher.

Anthony: Half of the money that was awarded to me was compensatory.

Javier: In other words, the loss of business, the cost of hiring new staff after the business started spiraling attorney cost, you get it?

Anthony: And then the other half of all of the money that was awarded to me was imp punitive damages.

Speaker: I think when Judge Duncan looked at everything that had happened and they realized. Holy cow, there's over $1.7 million in compensatory damages. Judge Duncan looked right at Ladonna's attorney and said, and in addition, I'm gonna, I'm going to award the exact equal amount in punitive damages against LaDonna

Javier: and, and this is awe self-inflicted too, right?

Speaker: Because you could have just won that 1.7. Million dollars, but she inflicted that other second half by her behavior in court and by how careless and, and, and also by lying, by, by being found in contempt of court on October 2nd, 2019. The court found LaDonna Humphrey in contempt, not once but five separate times. The judge had previously ordered both parties not to destroy evidence or send anonymous messages. Violated that order. The court said that she lied about her phone being stolen, deleted key evidence, sent spoof emails, and falsely claimed that her social media and Apple accounts had been hacked for each of those five violations. The judge sentenced her to 10 days in jail.

Anthony: LaDonna thought that she could sit on a stand, swear under oath, and continue to get away with her lies.

Javier: What happens next is pretty complicated. So I called up Mark Friedman, a reporter who's been covering this case with the Arkansas Business Magazine to help us break it down.

Mark Friedman: This section of the case begins in in bankruptcy court, and after she did get the, the 3.5, uh, $7 million judgment against her, she goes to bankruptcy court and. I would assume that she thought that that judgment would be discharged in bankruptcy and so she wouldn't owe it

Javier: slick move. Right? Well, it didn't work.

Mark Friedman: Anthony Christopher in his, in his clinic. Ask the trustee to buy ladonna's appellate rights to that $3.5 million case, which is unusual. You, I've never seen it, and it's pretty rare and it's almost a little messed

Javier: up. Right? Can someone actually buy your rights to a. Appeal a court decision. Yep. Especially if you're in bankruptcy.

Speaker: Let me explain how this works. Imagine this, you lose a major lawsuit. You're hit with a multimillion dollar judgment. You want to appeal to fight it, but you don't have the money to keep it going, so you file for bankruptcy. Here's the twist. In bankruptcy court, your assets go up for grabs, and those assets don't just mean your car or your house. They also include lawsuits and yes, even your right to appeal. And that's exactly what happened in this case. LaDonna Humphrey lost her court battle and owed millions. She filed for bankruptcy and then her opponent, Anthony Christopher, the same guy who sued her, made an offer. He told the trustee, Hey, I'll pay X amount to buy her legal claims and her appeals, right? And he did think about that. Her enemy bought her rights to keep fighting him in court. Filing for bankruptcy is like putting your life on the table at a yard sale, your car, your house, your credit. Everything is up for grabs, but in some cases, even your right to keep fighting in court is considered an asset and the person that you're fighting well. They show up early and buy it cheap. Now they own your side of the argument and they could throw it in the trash.

Mark Friedman: Like I said, I've never seen it, and I've been in Arkansas business now 25 years. I haven't seen anything like it. I'm sure it's happened. I've just never seen it personally.

Javier: It's rare. It's legal and it's brutal.

Speaker: Believe it or not, there's legal precedent for this. In multiple bankruptcy cases, courts have allowed a person's right to appeal, even their ability to defend themselves, to be sold off like property. And in some cases, it's the opposing party who buys those rights. Why? Well, to shut down the appeal and lock in their win.

Josh Silverstein: My name is Joshua Silverstein. I go by Josh. I'm a professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, not University of Arkansas. Generally. William H. Bowen School of Law.

Javier: bankruptcy.

Speaker: Setting the Stage: Bankruptcy in True CrimeJavier Leiva: You know, it's not like the sexiest topic on a true crime show, you know? But, but we're gonna do our best to, to make it sexy. I, I'm just not qualified. To answer those questions.

Exploring Bankruptcy Lawjavier Leiva: So I figured I wanted to find somebody that that is,

Speaker: with my very little understanding about bankruptcy law, it seems like this case is a little unique, but maybe not to you. I don't know. To me it seems, I thought it was really strange. It's that somebody that sued you could turn around and buy your appeals right, and then squash it. I, I just didn't even know that was a thing. It just seemed so clever.

Josh Silverstein: this way, Suppose you own a house.

Speaker: Real-Life Examples and Legal PrecedentsJosh Silverstein: And, and someone damages your house and you don't wanna deal with that anymore, you could sell the house to me. And not only would I get the house, but I would get the right to sue the people who damaged the house as well. One of the first assignments I did in private practice was. If there's injury to a property, who has a right to bring the claim against the person that damaged the property? The current owner, a previous owner who, and I wrote a gigantic memo for a client in Canada because they were dealing with that issue in Canada, and they wanted a survey of all of American law from my law firm, and so I wrote it, so yes. Claims to Sue can be used as property independently, or they can kind of run along with other property,

Javier: Wow. That that's, that's so interesting when you put it that way. It doesn't seem so strange. I think what's unique about this case is that it was the person that sued her that, that, that invested in her appeals rights. Now, how unusual is that?

Josh Silverstein: I don't know if the, in, in that precise form, how unusual it is. I've never seen anything like that happen, but it's very, very similar to settling a case.

Javier: so you're just saying it's just a different type of settle. Right.

Josh Silverstein: That's exactly what's effectively a different type of settlement. Now, sometimes property has to be put up for a public auction, and so what could happen is. I declare bankruptcy. I've got a right to sue you. The trustee's gonna sell that claim.

Speaker: At a public auction. You might bid the most for it and buy the claim, and then it'd be gone because it's just against you. But it'd be just a different way of purchasing a settlement.

Javier: It's rare, but the courts have upheld it as long as the price is right and no one objects in time. In LaDonna Humphrey's case, that's exactly what happened.

Mark Friedman: So the trustee and, and Anthony and, uh, the clinic and, and his attorneys worked to get this agreement to buy her rights from her because those rights at that time, I, I think, included the counterclaim against Anthony.

Speaker: So there's still some value there, and so that's why they were worth something.

Javier: Yeah, but how does owning someone else's appeal be worth something? Some litigation funders think of them like Wall Street investors for lawsuits, see appeals as a speculative asset. If they think that the appeal has a good chance of winning, they'll buy it the rights cheap and pay for the legal fight, win the appeal, and then collect the chunk of the overturn judgment or award money.

Speaker: It's like flipping a house, but instead you're flipping a court case. In other words, if the original owner can't afford to keep fighting, someone else might buy the rights and step in their shoes. It's a low risk, high reward investment. So you might be asking yourself, how much is LaDonna Humphrey's appeals worth?

Mark Friedman: He offered $12,500 to buy those, and the trustee thought, well, you know, it's difficult to win an appeal at state court anyway. It's like a 80% success rate. So the trustee agreed with it,

Javier: and here is where LaDonna messed up. She never asked for a stay of the sale in bankruptcy court. Anthony Christopher paid just $12,500 to buy Ladonna's rights to appeal the $3.5 million judgment along with any claims that she made against him.

Mark Friedman: They held a hearing in bankruptcy court. In the bankruptcy court approved it.

Javier: LaDonna did object. The sale of her appeals right in bankruptcy court. But here's the thing, she never filed a motion to stop it in legal terms. That's called a stay without it. The sale went through. Later she did try to fight back.

Speaker: She appealed the decision, arguing that the sale wasn't fair, and this time she actually won a US District Judge sided with her saying that the sale wasn't reasonable. Why? Because by losing her right to appeal, she lost her only real chance to challenge the $3.5 million judgment. But that win for LaDonna Humphrey didn't last very long. Anthony Christopher appealed that ruling and that case went up to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. When the case reached the eighth circuit. The court ruled that because the sale had already gone through and there was no stay in place, her appeal was moot. In other words, even if the sale was flawed, it was too late to undo it. That omission turned out to be fatal.

Mark Friedman: Well, since she didn't do that, the court of Appeal. Justices or the eighth circuit said, well, yes, she needed that, so we're gonna rule in Anthony's favor and then not even worry about these other issues. So that means even if she got her bankruptcy discharge, she'd still owe this money.

Speaker: So he's got that and then now he owns the rights to the appeal and he can have that. Dismissed

Javier: Anthony Christopher's $12,500 purchase of LaDonna Humphrey's. Appellate rights is now locked in valid final. In other words, he officially owns what was once her right to appeal that $3.57 million judgment and his legal team most likely will shut it down for good.

Speaker: Now that the appeal's out of the way, the next step is to start collecting. Yep. It's time to go after the $3.5 million judgment. You know, one of the things that I bet are, is gonna shock the listeners is that when you file for bankruptcy, that your assets, obviously your assets, if you own a, a car or a house, those are up for grabs. But, uh, but I think what they're gonna find shocking is

Javier: that so are lawsuits or maybe even your right to appeal. That just seems insane.

Mark Friedman: Like I said, I had never seen. That, that somebody buying their, their right to appeal.

Speaker: There was nobody offering to buy her appellate rights or Right. Any of that. Yeah. Yeah. The only buyer was Anthony Christopher. Right, right, right. So essentially where, and, and this is like where, what the listeners to understand is that where LaDonna went wrong was that she did not stop

Mark Friedman: the sale. She thought since she had the appellate court case appeal stage, she thought that covered the sale of the, of the rights to it, but that the judges at the eighth circuit said, no, that that's not the case,

Javier: and chances are Anthony Christopher's never gonna see this money.

Speaker: Right.

Mark Friedman: Uh, I would probably say you're correct. I, I don't know if, if LaDonna has 3.6 million hanging around. Probably not, but yeah. Uh, I guess I know I don't, yeah, so,

Speaker: but, you know, from, from here on out, I guess he could. Garnish her wages maybe? Yes. Um, pro any property she owns.

Mark Friedman: Yeah, I think some property would be protected, but I think he could get like a, a garnishment and I suspect they're gonna ask for her bank accounts and financial records and things like that to see what they could cease to pay off this, uh, judgment.

Javier: The first place they're gonna look is her salary at Oasis of Northwest Arkansas, the sober living facility that she's been running since 2019. But that's not gonna get them very far because according to the latest 2022 filing with the IRS, LaDonna only earned $15,600 a year. That's right at the federal poverty line.

Speaker: As previously reported on this podcast, LaDonna Humphrey is an aggressive fundraiser. Many of the women who stayed at Oasis, including some of her house managers, claimed that LaDonna Humphrey pockets, most of the money she raises for the halfway house, as one of my listeners put it on Instagram about this ruling, $3.5 million is a hell of a lot of Easter egg hunts. So what does LaDonna Humphrey have to say about all this? I reached out to her and her attorney, Tom Stockland over email asking for a statement. So far, crickets, I haven't heard back. She did, however, put a statement out, not through any official channel, but in the Sham blog today in Fort Smith under the byline of her usual mouthpiece, Dennis McCaslin. But here's the thing, Dennis McCaslin usually writes like Fred Flintstone with a hangover. And this one had perfect grammar polished sentences, not a single all caps rant. So yeah, we all know who really wrote this. They wrote, quote, he sues, he spins, he slanders, and when that doesn't work, he starts over louder and more aggressive than before. He sued her for slander, kicking off a legal campaign that spanned years and devastated her life in ways that most people can't imagine. During that lawsuit, her phone containing messages, documentation she believed would prove her innocence was stolen. Anthony Christopher claims that she faked the theft. The judge sided with him, struck her legal response and counterclaim, and held her in contempt of court. That woman, LaDonna Humphrey, fought back anyways. She fought through state court bankruptcy court and eventually all the way into federal court. She did it with attorneys. She did it pro se when no one else would stand by her. She did it even when it meant reliving trauma, facing harassment, and watching her name dragged through the mud. This week a crushing blow landed. A federal court issued a ruling that in the coldness of legal terms, said that she had no standing, no right to keep fighting. No more legal options just like that. Boom. It's over. No hearing, no jury, no presentation of evidence, just a gavel drop that echoes with finality. And while Anthony Christopher will undoubtedly celebrate this as a victory, it's anything but. It's a tragic example of how the legal system can be manipulated to silence victims and shield predators. He didn't win on the facts. He won on a technicality and he knows it, unquote. LaDonna through Dennis McCaslin then goes on the offensive using the blog post to take aim at Anthony Christopher. She dishes out every bit of dirt she can dig up on him throwing accusations left and right. It reads less like a legal response and more like a hit piece. LaDonna may not want to go on the record, but she's definitely trying to control the narrative.

Anthony: Javier, as, as we see, you know, the, the woman's the first to point out anybody's flaws, but the last to accept her, her own behavior in character, um, assassination. You know, LaDonna didn't. Lose because I outspent her.

Speaker: LaDonna lost because she's guilty, and what she did was wrong, and what she did was hurt people in the state of Arkansas. If you've been found guilty of malicious harm, injury or intent, those things are nondischargeable off of a bankruptcy. Well, if you look at that judgment from Judge Duncan, that language is all over the order, which tells me Judge Duncan also knew LaDonna was gonna attempt to file bankruptcy. Look, the, the big question everybody ask is, right, you want $3.57 million? Now it's yours. But, um, does she have the money? The answer is no. She doesn't have the money. But when I sued LaDonna, I knew that you could never get blood out of a turnip is that woman will never buy another house. That woman will never get approved for any major financing for the rest of her life because she's gonna have $3.57 million in interest weighing over her everywhere she goes.

Javier: And, you know, at the end of the day, I wanna say that, I mean, ultimately you won this case, right? But at the same time, I, I feel like there's no winners and I don't wanna speak for you. This has had a real big cost on you, right? You're not gonna see that money, you know, you've been through hell for the last.

Speaker: Several years. Do you feel like vindicated or do you feel, how are you feeling right now?

Anthony: You know, I think you're right, Javier. You know, there's no, there's no real winner in any of this. You know, I, if I could go back, I mean, I would, I would go back to the beginning and I would've never hired LaDonna. I would've never met LaDonna.

Speaker: And so, you know, unfortunately I can't go back. But, but you're right. I mean, the thing is, is that. This has done a lot of damage. It's inflicted a lot of pain. There's been a lot of stress. I've spent a whole lot of money that I'd rather spend elsewhere defending my name and holding LaDonna accountable. But you know, the, the, in the weird way, Javier, it's over, but. Is it ever really over with LaDonna and the answer's no.

Javier: And Anthony Christopher's right. LaDonna hasn't stopped even with a $3.5 million judgment hanging over her. She's still harassing victims and witnesses tied to violent crimes. Since I wrapped the, who's Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey series, she's moved on inserting herself into new cases, playing the same game.

Speaker: And the whole time I've been watching, documenting, waiting, and. Now it's time to bring it all into the light. Next time on Pretend LaDonna targets a 9 1 1 caller who witnessed a murder across her property,

Kortney Cline: not too many. Did LaDonna reveal you? Well, she put in for a foia and then yes, she made that. Did an article. Saying like, what responsibility does the 9 1 1 caller hold? Like, could she have done more? Should she have done more?

Speaker: Is she responsible? You know, but all, she never wrote it herself. She had that guy in Portsmith write it.

Javier: And did they actually write down your name? Like did they. Reveal who you were? No. Oh, okay. No,

Kortney Cline: they didn't. Nobody has actually printed my name, but she gave the most details. She said, you know, in the same yard as, I mean, there's always one neighbor.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Javier: LaDonna and her surrogates expose the identity of a 9 1 1 caller. And now that caller fears for her life because the men that she believes committed the murder are still out there.

Kortney Cline: They will kill a dog and they will kill her. How they killed her? I'm not letting my kids out of my sight. I have pictures of one of the guys that was involved standing on our property line, holding a gun by his side, smoking a cigarette, staring at me.

Speaker: I'm scared. They know me. They live by me for a long time and they know I'm mouthy. And if they drove too fast with the dogs or I did not care to tell 'em.

Javier: That's next time on Pretend.

Speaker: This episode was written and produced by me, Javier Leyva. It was edited by the talented Puny with the podcast pundits, and our theme music is by the chicken net. We'll be back with a brand new episode next week. Of course, you could always get the latest episode on Patreon or Pretend Plus on Apple Podcast, and it's more than just brand new episodes on Patreon. We really do have a community. Sometimes we listen to the episodes live together. That's a lot of fun. So if you like this show, consider supporting it on Patreon or. Apple Podcast on Pretend Plus. Thank you so much. And remember, don't forget to leave a review and follow us on social at Pretend Pod. All right, talk to you next week.