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Attorney of defendant in T.D. Jakes’ defamation suit files to withdraw amid ethics concern

A federal judge wrote in a recent filing that attorney Tyrone Blackburn committed a “clear ethical violation of the highest order.”

Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney who had represented former minister Duane Youngblood in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dallas’ Bishop T.D. Jakes has filed a motion to withdraw from the case.

In a filing in a federal Pennsylvania district court last month, U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV said recent filings submitted by Blackburn contained misrepresentations and fabrications of relevant case law.

Stickman said Blackburn’s conduct was “a clear ethical violation of the highest order,” and Blackburn now faces potential sanctions. The judge said he presumed Blackburn used artificial intelligence in writing the filings.

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Last year, Youngblood alleged during appearances on the YouTube talk show Larry Reid Live that Jakes groomed and tried to sexually assault him years ago. In November, Jakes sued Youngblood for defamation.

In January, Youngblood’s brother, Richard Youngblood, a Georgia minister, alleged in a sworn affidavit that Jakes also attempted to sexually assault him. Jakes vehemently denied the allegations in a February affidavit.

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Jakes founded and served as the longtime senior pastor of Dallas megachurch The Potter’s House, which has 30,000 members, according to its website. On Sunday, Jakes officially transferred leadership of the church to his daughter and son-in-law, Sarah Jakes Roberts and Touré Roberts.

In a Monday statement to The Dallas Morning News, Blackburn said he recently paid for a new AI feature that would prompt him to insert relevant case law and would then generate a motion or other legal filing based on that case law. He said the AI program merged fact patterns and mismatched citations in his recent filings and that he was in the process of correcting those errors when Youngblood asked him to leave the case.

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“This program attracted me since I do not have paralegals or assistance,” Blackburn said of the AI feature. Blackburn said he represented Youngblood pro bono, and about 60% of his clients are currently pro bono.

He told The News in February about 30% of his clients were pro bono. Since then, many of his hourly cases have been resolved and the majority of his cases are extended employment litigation and immigration and defense work, Blackburn said Tuesday.

Youngblood did not respond to a request for comment emailed to a spokesperson listed on his personal website.

Youngblood is a registered sex offender. He was convicted of sexual assault in 2008 and corruption of minors in 2014, according to the Pennsylvania sex offender registry.

The lawsuit’s current status

In May, Blackburn filed a motion to dismiss Jakes’ defamation lawsuit based on failure to state a claim. Stickman, the district judge, struck that motion from the record and wrote that Youngblood must file a response to Jakes’ defamation complaint on or before July 11.

The question of whether the lawsuit will advance past the stage where dismissal remains possible is still pending before the court.

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In his June 26 memorandum order censuring Blackburn, Stickman also said that, when previously accused by Jakes’ lawyers of fabricating and misrepresenting case law, Blackburn chose to “double down.”

After Jakes’ lawyers accused Blackburn of fabricating case law in his motion to dismiss, Blackburn filed a reply that included more fabrications, Stickman said.

When reached for comment, Dustin Pusch, a lawyer for Jakes, said the judge’s order and his legal team’s previous filings spoke for themselves.

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“Plaintiff has proven through human analysis the serious legal defects and other grave issues within Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss pleadings,” Jakes’ lawyers wrote in a June filing. “Instead of acknowledging or even trying to address the fabricated quotes and other perversions of case law and pleadings in his filings, Defendant instead resorts to falsely accusing Plaintiff and his counsel of doing the same.”

“Whoever or whatever drafted the briefs signed and filed by Blackburn, it is clear that he, at the very best, acted with culpable neglect of his professional obligations,” Stickman wrote in his June order. “The alternative is that he acted in a conscious effort to deceive and mislead the Court.”

Stickman said the court was “inclined to believe the latter,” given that Blackburn responded to fabrication accusations from Jakes’ lawyers with more fabrications.

Per the judge’s order, Blackburn is required to appear before the court on July 24 to make a case for why he should not be sanctioned. Possible sanctions could include fees or the revocation of Blackburn’s special permission in this case to practice in a state or jurisdiction where he is not already licensed.

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