Texas financier James Dondero says Judge Stacey Jernigan used him as inspiration for her latest legal crime thriller Hedging Death after he was assigned to his bankruptcy case
Texas financier James Dondero says Judge Stacey Jernigan used him as inspiration for her latest legal crime thriller Hedging Death after he was assigned to his bankruptcy case
- Jernigan has been overseeing Donder’s bankruptcy case since 2019
- In 2022, she released the book Hedging Death about a troubled financier
A Texas financier fights to get the judge assigned to his bankruptcy case out, claiming she used him as the inspiration for her latest crime thriller novel.
James Dondero, who ran Highland Capital, says Judge Stacey Jernigan can no longer act impartially in his case.
He claims she used him as the basis of her character Cade Graham, a hedge financier on trial for fraud in Hedging Death, her latest book.
Graham’s story is more dramatic than Dondero’s.
After being suspected of fraud, the character fakes his own death and goes missing in Mexico. There are ties to the cartel and a mysterious biotech company to thicken the plot.
Judge Jernigan with another legal novel. She says she did nothing wrong
Financier James Dondero claims that the judge can no longer act impartially in his bankruptcy case
Jernigan’s latest book, Hedging Death, was due out in 2022. Her first novel, He Watches All My Paths, was self-published in 2019.
While Dondero’s real life isn’t as gripping, he says Jernigan took his old firm’s name – Ranger – and used it in the book.
Her passion for the subject and the unkind way she characterizes his industry also shows that she cannot act impartially, he claims.
“The impartiality of judges — and the appearance of impartiality — is a critical part of the federal judiciary. We are well past the point where a reasonable person would see partiality,” he said The Wall Street Journal this week in his last attempt to get her off the case.
He has been fighting for a new judge since March.
The book was self-published in March last year.
Jerrigan and Dondero first encountered each other in 2019, when the bankruptcy case against him and Highland Capital was moved from Delaware to Texas.
Like the judge in her books, Jernigan is married to a police officer and has two King Charles Cavalier Spaniels
He was accused of embezzling funds at the company, which once managed about $40 billion.
Dondero’s investors and former partners were among those who sued him.
It was not his first encounter with a public trial.
In 2013, he and his ex-wife were locked in a bitter divorce and had also been sued before by ex-employees who, according to The everyday beastlabeled him a “megalomaniac.”
His former partners at Highland say his efforts to get Jerrigan out of the case represent his litigation.
Jerrigan defended himself by citing in a written opinion in March how many other judges have written works of fiction about their jurisdiction.
Like the judge in her books, Jernigan is married to a police officer and has two King Charles Cavalier spaniels.
Judicial crime enthusiast Judge Stacey Jernigan not only oversees cases, but also writes her own books about a Texas judge whose life bears striking similarities to hers