HOUSTON – More than six months after KPRC 2 exposed a Houston-area attorney accused of stealing settlement checks from his clients who had been injured in car accidents, the longtime attorney tells reporter Bryce Newberry he has decided to resign his license.
David Lee Pettus, who has been sued several times in Harris and Fort Bend counties over the alleged theft, had also been under investigation by the State Bar of Texas with a trial set for this fall, according to multiple accusers.
A spokesperson for the State Bar declined to provide any information to KPRC 2.
“Generally speaking, according to our process, we wouldn’t be able to confirm unless/until we had a signed Resignation in Lieu of Discipline agreement submitted to/approved by the Texas Supreme Court,” Texas Bar Communications Director Lowell Brown wrote in an email.
Under state rules, a licensed lawyer can submit a motion to resign in lieu of discipline, but it has to be accepted by the Texas Supreme Court. A resignation in that way is treated as disbarment.
Over the phone, Brown continually cited confidentiality issues in providing any details, despite clients contacting KPRC 2 to say they had been contacted by the Bar’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel with the development on Thursday morning.
Pettus, when contacted by KPRC 2 on Thursday afternoon, shared his reason for resigning his license:
“Unfortunately, a number of my former clients who were upset at the amounts of the settlements they got apparently banded together to report to the Bar that somehow they were deceived, NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!! The truth is I represented the regular person-not big shots in big cases. I just don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it will take to fight the Bar. I wish that I could, but since I can’t I felt at this stage of my long career, the best thing to do was resign my license to save me and my family from bankruptcy. I will keep helping people as long as I can because that is just the way I am made,” Pettus wrote.
“Oh, wow. Oh. I have no words,” said Alexandra Alameda, an accuser who spoke with KPRC 2 in March, breaking down in tears at Pettus’ statement. “This man did this to innocent people. And just because we’re not, what did he say? Big shots, regular people? That is not okay. Oh, my God. I really, I really hope that someone does their job and ... I’m like shaking ... he does time behind bars.”
Alameda, her husband and 8-year-old all got injured in a November 2023 crash when Houston Police chased a carjacking suspect before a shootout on Highway 59 near Interstate 610.
“I’m telling you, that man has no remorse whatsoever. And I’m so mad. That man doesn’t care at all about how much pain that he’s put people through at all. And the fact that he’s saying that we banded together like that’s so far from the truth,” she said, noting that family medical bills have gone to collections because they still haven’t received the estimated $60,000 in settlement money, she said they were owed.
In previous statements to KPRC 2, Pettus denied the theft allegations and wrote that he looked forward to clearing his “good name” in a courtroom or legal proceeding. After he failed to respond to lawsuits, Harris County judges have granted default judgements against him, in favor of his clients, in at least two separate cases.
Alameda filed a grievance against Pettus with the State Bar and a civil lawsuit in Fort Bend County.
Derek Liang, another accuser who has filed a grievance, said he has no faith in the State Bar.
“My grievance alone should have been enough to disbar the guy. And here we are, almost two years later, and they still haven’t really disbarred him. He voluntarily gave up his license, so ... not really a great win,” Liang said. “The bar didn’t make him do anything. This is purely him trying to control narrative to make him out to be some hero that, you know, sacrifices a big thing his whole career, you know, because the man was beating him down. It’s completely ridiculous.”
Liang’s medical bills have gone to collections as well after an October 2021 crash after an Astros game, when he broke his wrist and his wife broke her tailbone. He is still waiting on the $90,000 he expected in settlement money.
“Appreciate you exposing this bastard,” Liang said. “I think, if these stories wouldn’t have aired, then he would probably still be out there conning other people.”
The State Bar’s website still shows Pettus’ license as active, but the rules indicate the Chief Disciplinary Counsel has 20 days to respond to the resignation motion about whether the acceptance of the resignation is in the best interest of the public and the profession.