Byers' Beat is a weekly column written by the I-Team's Christine Byers, who has covered public safety in St. Louis for 15 years. It is intended to offer context and analysis to the week's biggest crime stories and public safety issues.
ST. LOUIS — One of the most high-profile and potentially costly lawsuits involving the NFL is playing out in front of St. Louis Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh – a man with a lengthy legal career, which includes connections to the NFL’s opposing team.
This week, McGraugh made national headlines after scolding and fining NFL owners in his courtroom for not following his order to turn over financial documents.
During a newscast earlier this week, 5 On Your Side’s Casey Nolen said the NFL may be starting to feel like it has a “hometown ref” in the courtroom, while talking to reporter Holden Kurwicki about the testy hearing.
A look at the docket reveals McGraugh has routinely ruled against the NFL in this case as it makes its way closer to a jury trial – including their bid to have the trial moved out of St. Louis and dismiss the case all together.
At issue is whether the NFL violated its own relocation rules by uprooting the Rams and moving them to Los Angeles in 2016.
Those rules are in place to try to keep teams in their home cities and prevent antitrust liability.
The City of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RSA) filed a lawsuit against the NFL in 2017 saying it violated those rules.
NFL attorneys have argued the rules are not a contract and the lawsuit should be dismissed – another move McGraugh struck down.
That was great news for the three plaintiffs’ attorneys, who hail from two Clayton-based law firms: Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch LC and Dowd Bennett LLP.
NFL attorneys have said in court their opponents are seeking as much as $1 billion, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.
Four months before the suit was filed, the RSA's board on Dec. 7, 2016, voted unanimously to hire the firms. The pact, later duplicated by the other plaintiffs, calls for Blitz and Dowd to get 35% of any winnings – putting a potential takeaway for the plaintiffs' law firms at $350 million, according to the Business Journal.
The lawyers would also take from the plaintiffs' winnings "costs incurred such as photocopies, filing fees, court reporting costs, depositions, transcripts, witness fees, subpoenas, expert witness fees, etc.," according to a copy of the agreement, obtained through an open-records request by the Business Journal.
A look into McGraugh's history shows two members of the Dowd Bennett firm were involved in McGraugh’s ascension to the bench.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from Saint Louis University in 1983 and a Juris Doctor from the SLU School of Law in 1987. His career began in October that year when he was admitted to the Missouri Bar.
For his first two years as an attorney, he worked for the Missouri State Public Defenders Office.
In 2012, then-Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon appointed McGraugh as an associate circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial District in St. Louis.
Two years later, on Sept. 29, 2014, McGraugh applied to become a circuit judge.
"It has been my intention that all individuals whether attorney, court staff, pro se litigants or jurors walk from my courtroom with the sensibility of respect and dignity," he wrote.
Listed as the second of five references on his application was James Martin – now a partner in the Dowd Bennett firm.
McGraugh ended up getting the job in April 2015 when Nixon appointed him.
Months later, the Dowd Bennett law firm announced Nixon would be joining its firm after leaving the governor’s office in January 2016.
McGraugh declined to comment for this story.
NFL Attorney Gerard Carmody also declined to comment.
Jim Bennett has not yet responded to my request for comment Friday.
Attorneys and judges I talked to on background about the connections say they’re not surprised.
St. Louis is a big small town – and legal circles are no exception.
NFL attorneys haven’t raised any concerns about the connections.
So, are connections conflicts?
"Not necessarily," said Ken Warren, a political science professor at Saint Louis University and an expert on ethics. "It does have the appearance of a conflict of interest, but whether it's a provable hardened conflict of interest, meaning he will he throw out his judicial principles and rule in favor of the plaintiff, that’s another question."
Warren said actual conflicts of interest are extremely difficult to prove, and he believes it's why attorneys for the NFL haven't raised the issue. He noted McGraugh's connections to the Dowd Bennett firm could be an issue the NFL might raise should they appeal.
But now is not the time.
"They’re educated enough and experienced enough to know conflicts of interest are everywhere," Warren said of the NFL attorneys. "And to go after the judge would be to piss the judge off, as if you're trying to intimidate the judge and that’s not appropriate either.
"You start attacking the judge, watch out, because they’re human beings."
And, as human beings, judges also have egos, Warren said.
"Surely you are right in pointing out what you are pointing out to me, it’s all an inside group, they're all connected," he said. "And I can say this interconnectedness has at least an appearance of a conflict of interest and some courts have ruled judges should recuse themselves from cases."
To those watching from the sidelines, the connections can seem glaring.
"But this goes on all the time," Warren said. "Conflict of interest laws are almost impossible to enforce and they almost never end up in a conviction."
Nixon and Martin are not in McGraugh's courtroom for this lawsuit.
Other members of the firm are.
And they stand to win big should the calls continue to go their way.