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On June 30, as I’m almost positive you’ll recall, FBI agents raided the offices of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price; his executive assistant, Dapheny Fain; and Kathy Nealy, the well-connected political consultant. What you may have missed: Nineteen days before the raid, Center Operating Company, which owns and operates the American Airlines Center, sued Nealy in Dallas County District Court, claiming she owes $131,639.43 for a lower-level suite she licensed in 2009. Which, as The News would later note, is the least of her problems. Because in addition to the FBI investigation, the IRS also claims she “owes more than $459,000 in federal taxes, interest and penalties.”
The AAC’s complaint, which follows, is short on details; it just says she licensed the suite in ’09 and after “numerous demands,” she “continued to fail and refused to pay the past due amounts.” On her website, Nealy lists American Airlines as one of her “business consulting” clients — at the very top, matter of fact, just above the Dallas Independent School District.
Every now and then I’ll peek into the file jacket to see if Nealy’s responded to the complaint. For weeks now, nothing — because, it says, Nealy’s attorney, OU associate law prof Cheryl Wattley, wasn’t served till August 10. A response was expected in early September. Wattley’s yet to file anything, and AAC attorney Brian Vanderwoude is so tired, tired of waiting, which is why he filed a motion for partial default judgment yesterday. Writes Vanderwoude, the AAC agreed to give Nealy an extension till September 13 while they “engaged in discussions in an attempt to resolve this dispute,” but those proved fruitless. Meanwhile, Wattley and Nealy are no-shows, and the AAC considers Nealy “currently in default.”
Vanderwoude’s motion follows — along with the attachments, which include several emails between he and Wattley in which most if not all of the text has been redacted.
