VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — New federal court documents show growing concerns regarding the settlement payment of the $3 million wrongful death lawsuit of Donovon Lynch.
In documents filed Monday in the U.S. Eastern District of Virginia, "Anchor Legal Group" asserted that the "Plaintiff [Wayne B. Lynch, Administrator of the Estate of Donovon W. Lynch, Deceased] is attempting to fraudulently use this Honorable Court to avoid fairly paying any of the attorneys who diligently prosecuted this complex case."
In March 2021, a Virginia Beach police officer shot and killed 25-year-old Lynch during a night of chaos and reported gunfire at the Oceanfront.
While a special grand jury did not find probable cause to charge Officer Solomon Simmons over the incident, Lynch's father, Wayne Lynch, filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit and attorneys for Anchor Legal Group became some of the earliest lawyers brought on to the case.
In the years since the original filing, Lynch has switched legal representation several times, eventually moving from Anchor Legal to former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, the attorney who negotiated the $3 million settlement with city attorneys.
In the latest filings by Anchor Legal, attorneys push back on arguments that the extent of their work on the case should equate to $100,000 in fees. Court documents from December 2022 show their "lienholder deductions" are originally billed as $238,000.
One argument says:
"....Anchor Legal was retained in an hourly capacity for the first year of this matter, and as such, would periodically generate and send billing invoices to plaintiff-- billing invoices that contained the same time entries as state in the lien, but were never paid by plaintiff."
This comes several days after other documents show the Estate, now represented by what appears to be new attorney Trey Kelleter, filed a response to Anchor Legal Group's attorneys' fees, arguing that "reasonable" attorneys' fees is the amount less than half of the original lienholder deductions figure.
Days before that on July 21, attorney Joseph Sherman (also previously retained by the Lynch estate) filed a motion opposing the costs and attorneys' fees for Justin Fairfax and Thomas Martin, whose total "Attorneys' fees and Expenses" according to previous court documents total more than $700,000. He concluded that they are not entitled to "fees due to their breach of contract."
In response, Fairfax on July 27 filed a response, saying in part: "...the Estate has no intention of justly compensating the undersigned-- and others-- for their services..."
The response also calls into question Lynch's family attorney Jeff Reichert, and an attempt to "by any possible contrivance or machination, to avoid paying the attorney's fees."
Fairfax previously stated Reichert was interfering with the negotiation process, and was evidence for why the courts should enforce the settlement.
In response to the growing concerns, Lynch sent 13News Now the following statement:
"I am disappointed that Anchor would viciously, attack me a grieving father, who simply wants justice for my son Donovon. This unprofessional conduct is an example of why I fired Anchor for cause and I’m not objecting to paying them what they have earned.
My son Donovon-Wayne Lynch was an amazing human being with a great legacy that we as his family want to keep alive. We never thought that we would have to fight those who said they were helping us for the money drenched in my son’s blood. God help us through this!"