Saturday, January 08, 2011

Acquitted Cop Killer Vows "We Will Defend Ourselves!" If Crim'l Defense Lawyer Attempts Eviction After F'closing On Family Farm Over Unpaid Legal Fees

In Kingston, Tennessee, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports:
  • The lawyer who won Leon Houston's freedom holds a prize he can't cash. Not a single bidder showed up Tuesday when former defense lawyer Jim Logan stood on the Roane County courthouse steps and auctioned a little less than 100 acres of the Houston family farm for unpaid legal fees. Logan ended up buying the land back himself. The winning bid came in at $150,000 - far less than the quarter-million-plus Logan said the family still owes him.

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  • "This is going to get interesting when they come try to evict me by way of fraud," Leon Houston said. "We will defend ourselves."

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  • Logan sat beside Leon Houston through two double-murder trials over three years in the deaths of Roane County Deputy Bill Jones and ride-along Mike Brown. Jones and Brown died in a shootout with the Houston brothers May 11, 2006, in front of the family farmhouse on Barnard Narrows Road south of the Tennessee River.

  • The brothers argued self-defense, and prosecutors couldn't prove who shot first. Leon Houston's first trial ended in a mistrial, the second in acquittal on all charges in November 2009. [Brother] Rocky Houston's only trial in December 2008 ended in a split verdict, and an appeals court threw out the case last year.

For the story, see No bids made on Houston land (Lawyer buys back farm he owns in lieu of fees).