HOUSTON – The Houston-area personal injury attorney first exposed by KPRC 2 in January for allegedly stealing settlement checks from clients after their car crashes, apparently has more victims.
After the story aired, several more alleged victims reached out claiming they had similar experiences with David Lee Pettus, the attorney who operates his law firm out of a virtual office in League City.
The new victims tell KPRC 2 they haven’t seen any money they were owed, haven’t heard from Pettus, and some haven’t been able to get much-needed medical treatment.
So far, KPRC 2 has vetted allegations made by at least five of his clients who claim their money was stolen and he left them in the dark. Despite that, Pettus is still licensed to practice law in Texas.
The State Bar of Texas and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office would not confirm or deny any investigations involving Pettus. He denies all claims raised by the new alleged victims.
Pettus, who previously told KPRC 2 in a statement he looks forward to sharing his side of the story in a proper venue such as a courtroom, appears to be avoiding the legal process altogether, according to court documents in two civil cases that accuse him of legal malpractice.
New victims
In November, Houston Police chased a carjacking suspect, which ended in a crash followed by a shootout near the Galleria.
The suspect crashed into several vehicles on Highway 59 near Interstate 610, including the Volkswagen Tiguan occupied by Alexandra Alameda, her husband, and their 8-year-old son.
“One minute we came to a stop, the next we’re on the other side of the freeway,” Alameda said. “That suspect hit us, caused us to flip twice and land on the other side of 59, so it really turned our whole world upside down.”
The SUV was totaled. Her husband suffered spine and skull fractures while she and her son had concussions and bruises. All three of them had to go to Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center.
Alameda hired Pettus. She previously retained him as her attorney after a crash in 2018 when she said everything went smoothly.
“I didn’t know where to start,” she said. “Called him this time and it was completely different. The whole conversation was different. The pattern was different. Everything was off and I didn’t realize until it was too late.”
“What was so different?” KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry asked her.
“He didn’t ask me anything about physical therapy. He didn’t ask me anything medically,” she said.
The first time she worked with him six years ago, Alameda said he was first concerned about medical issues, then about the vehicle.
When she hired him the second time, she initially got fast responses to calls and text messages. As it got closer to Christmas, she said the communication dwindled.
“I just blew up his phone, you know, telling him I need guidance on my case,” Alameda said. “He just stopped answering anything.”
Around New Year’s Day, she scrolled through the State Farm app on her phone and realized the case had settled. Eventually, she found out the settlement amount was more than $60,000.
“All the checks were sent to his house. He cashed them, he forged our signatures,” Alameda said. “He’s nowhere to be found.”
“And you had no idea?” Newberry asked.
“No idea. I didn’t even know he settled. I had no idea. And not to mention, this is all on December 19, barely a month from the accident,” she said.
Alameda is not alone.
In January, KPRC 2 shared the story of Jeffrey Herzik, Sharon Reilly, and Derek Liang, who all said they haven’t seen a dime after hiring Pettus to represent them following their crashes.
Reilly and Liang both reported Pettus to the State Bar of Texas. Herzik filed a legal malpractice lawsuit.
In December, Pettus was named in another legal malpractice lawsuit by crash victim Amanda Balderas, who claimed breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.
“She had no idea that that the case settled,” her attorney, Brian Humphrey, said.
She didn’t sign off on the settlement either.
“She did not sign that document. She has denied that. I have her signature, it does not look like that,” Humphrey said while showing KPRC a copy of a settlement release form.
In 2021, Balderas suffered injuries to her shoulder and neck in a crash, Humphrey said. Doctors recommended surgery.
State Farm issued a settlement check to Balderas and The Pettus Law Firm for $249,000 in July 2022.
“She hasn’t had that surgery yet because she doesn’t have the money,” Humphrey said. “She has to go to work in pain.”
Pettus, who responded to a request for comment for the January story with a statement, said he looks forward to telling his side of the story in court, and that he looked forward to clearing his good name. But records show it hasn’t been easy to even serve him with lawsuits.
“If he wants to respond in court, he’s not showing that he’s very enthusiastic about doing that,” Humphrey said.
Process servers have tried to serve Pettus the malpractice lawsuits from Herzik and Balderas several times, but attorneys claim in court filings that he’s “either willfully dodging service, or ignoring” it.
“He’s been avoiding service. Our process server even saw him once. Mr. Pettus ignored him and went back up the stairs into his house,” Humphrey said.
He alleges that Pettus has violated federal law and has a pattern of racketeering with multiple instances of mail and wire fraud.
“This man needs to not be a lawyer so he can’t prey on anyone else,” Humphrey said. “He should go to jail, without doubt.”
Alameda agrees. She too reported Pettus to the State Bar of Texas. Family medical bills have gone to collections, she said, as her husband continued having seizures and not getting the treatment he needed.
“Not getting the funds that Mr. Pettus has taken has really just made this nightmare ten times worse,” she said. “I feel scammed. I feel like he’s a con artist.”
Alameda is now part of a growing group chat of alleged victims, all of them united by a man they hired and trusted but now call a fraud.
“Nobody is stopping him,” she said. “How many other people have to get affected before … something’s done?”
KPRC 2 reached out to Pettus about the additional allegations from Alameda and Balderas and he responded with the following statement:
“Let me first say, I deny any and all claims made by Mrs. Alameda and Ms. Balderas. While I respect the right of anyone to make a claim, I also look forward to telling my side of the story in the proper venue; a court of law, and not in the press as they have clearly chosen to do here. It will be in a courtroom that I look forward to clearing my good name. As for as any other client’s of mine expressing “similar allegations” as you claim by airing this OFFENSIVE and SENSATIONALIZED STORY, I am not aware of this; however, I would equally respect anyones right to make a claim, and they too should expect my opportunity of telling my side of the issue as well in a proper venue, which will certainly not be in the press,” Pettus wrote in an email to KPRC 2.
Pettus has not been found liable in Balderas’ civil case. He has not been disciplined by the State Bar, and he has not been charged with a crime.
But records show Pettus and his law firm have been found liable in a legal malpractice lawsuit filed by Herzik in March 2023 and highlighted in KPRC 2′s January story.
The lawsuit alleged negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. A Harris County judge signed off on a nearly $4 million default judgment on Feb. 27 after Pettus failed to show up or respond in court.