Stephen R. Bough—the federal court judge overseeing the Burnett case—has been asked, yet again, to recuse himself from a case after accepting contributions from plaintiffs to his wife’s campaign.
Judge Bough is no stranger to these accusations, having proactively asked parties involved in the Burnett case if they felt he should recuse himself last year, and offering to “step down” if parties felt it were necessary (though he also noted at the time that a local REALTOR® association had donated to his wife’s campaign).
In the Burnett case, the former lead class counsel, Matthew Dameron, donated to Andrea Bough’s—Judge Bough’s wife—political campaign. When that conflict of interest was brought to light, Bough specifically asked each of the parties (lawyers representing large brokerages as well as plaintiffs) if they would want him to recuse himself.
The same problem has come up in the Gibson case, but the court has not brought it to the parties’ attention, argues Hanna Holdings.
“Rather than offer the parties in Gibson the same opportunity, the Court appointed the very attorney who admittedly created the basis for disqualification in Burnett to be class counsel in Gibson—just five days after recognizing the potential for apparent impropriety caused by the donation in Burnett and without ever informing the parties in Gibson of the issue,” read the court document.
According to the filing, the court did not inform the parties in the Gibson case about the matter, but Hanna Holdings “only learned of the issue a few weeks ago after an attorney new to the case discovered it through a Google search.”
In response to not receiving the option to vote on Judge Bough’s recusal, they say in the filing, “Hanna Holdings was not asked, but it does not consent.”
In the Burnett case, according to the court documents, Brandon Boulware and Dameron filed a complaint on April 29, 2019. On August 30, Boulware was behind the second donation ever received by the Committee to Elect Andrea Bough. Dameron donated to Andrea Bough in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Similarly, Michael Ketchmark entered his appearance for the plaintiffs in Burnett on November 1, 2021. Between the filing of the complaint and June 7, 2021, Ketchmark donated $103,189 to Taxpayers Unlimited PAC, which in turn contributed $8,317.06 to the Campaign Committee of Andrea Bough and her directly.
On April 22, 2022, the court granted the Burnett plaintiff’s motion for class certification and appointed Ketchmark and McCreight, Boulware Law LLC and Williams Dirks Dameron LLC as co-lead class counsel. Just four days later, the PAC donated an additional $2,975.00 to Mrs. Bough’s campaign. During a Burnett settlement conference on May 9, 2024, these findings were revealed but none of the parties objected to Judge Bough remaining on the case.
Most of this information was previously brought forward publicly by members of the real estate community, either in formal objections to the court or protestations in the media, most notably by Anthony Lamacchia, CEO of Massachusetts-based Lamacchia Companies and broker/owner of Lamacchia Realty.
Hanna Holdings claims that the court never disclosed that basis for disqualification to the parties in the Gibson case. On October 31, 2024—just nine days before the Gibson conference to approve settlements and attorney’s fees—Dameron withdrew his appearance in both Gibson and Burnett. After the conference, his firm was awarded nearly $10 million, read the filing.
Given that Dameron withdrew from the case right before the court approved settlements, Hanna Holdings argues it “indicates a recognition on Mr. Dameron’s part that his contributions to Andrea Bough’s campaign warranted the Court’s disqualification in this case, as it did in Burnett,” read the filing.
Before the recusal vote in the Burnett case, Judge Bough stated “the ethics rules require me to ask each of the parties if they would like to conflict me off the case, and if you would, I’ll be more than glad to step down based upon that.”
