Old Injustice
Dolcefino Media is going to court in Waller County as we fight to open up the secret court records of a multi-million-dollar divorce case involving the co-founder of politically powerful NewQuest Properties. It is an investigation that raises allegations of Real Injustice, including questions of bias by the judge hearing the case.
Real Injustice
1968. The year Martin Luther King was assassinated.
“The greatness of America is the right to protest for rights,” Martin Luther King said.
Then, Bobby Kennedy.
“There has been a shot fired at the Kennedy headquarters in the Ambassador Hotel,” a old news story said.
I was just a kid, but I remember the images of the Democratic convention out of control in Chicago. It’s almost 60 long years ago. It’s also the year Robert Kern became a lawyer.
“When I started practicing law, a divorce decree was one page,” Judge Robert Kern said.
Kern was a Texas district court judge for thirteen years.
“I’ve stayed pretty active, particularly in southeast Texas,” Kern said.
He retired twelve years ago. But at the age of 82, Judge Kern is still presiding in Texas courtrooms and still allowed to dole out justice, or is Kern doling out real injustice to women?
“I feel very cheated with him,” Sonia Castillo said.
“And you think it was because you’re a woman?” Wayne Dolcefino asked.
“Kind of belittling, condescending, just kind of the way he spoke to me,” said victim Kelsey Hagendorf.
“We all want to have trust that our judges and our officials, not only are unbiased, but that they’re competent in their job,” said attorney Nick Kacal.
“But these accusations of bias are not the only reason we want to see what they’ve been hiding in a multi-million dollar divorce playing out in a Waller County courthouse,” Dolcefino told the camera.
NewQuest Properties is worth a fortune.
“There is no market that we’re in that is as vibrant as the Houston market,” Jay Sears said in a speech.
We’re talking billions of dollars in commercial real estate deals.
“We are one of the best places to work,” Austin Alvis, president of NewQuest said.
And the co-founders of NewQuest got really rich, politically powerful too.
NewQuest owners have handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign money.
$580,000 from co-founder Steve Alvis to Governor Abbott in the last five years.
“It’s a game changer. The Texas miracle is alive,” Steve Alvis said.
Alvis has been appointed to the board of Texas Transportation Commission.
Alvis is also on the board of the Waller County Economic Development Partnership.
When the Waller County judge, Trey Duhon, ran for reelection, Alvis and co-founder Jay Sears were squarely behind him—more than $17,000 in campaign contributions from Alvis and his wife, and Sears and his wife.
NewQuest is investing big time in Waller County.
In January, the company announced plans for the Texas Heritage Marketplace, a 750,000 square foot development in Katy, a $400 million investment.
The kind of money Waller County government has likely never seen.
But behind the scenes, there has been trouble, and it has been contagious, and it’s been kept a total secret.
On August 4th, 2020, Jay Sears filed for divorce from his wife Debra. Just ten days later, Steve Alvis filed for divorce against his wife.
It has gotten so ugly that now Jay Sears’ own adult daughter is suing him in Harris County, claiming he cheated her out of a multi-million dollar real estate deal.
That court filing in Harris County is a matter of public record.
But look what happens when you search the Waller County clerk records for the legal issues facing the NewQuest co-founders in Waller County.
The Sears divorce case doesn’t even exist.
There are records of three divorce filings by the wife of Steve Alvis, the last one in June of 2020.
Look for the lawsuit Steve Alvis filed against his wife months later for divorce, and you’ll see nada. Nothing.
Not even the motions to seal the divorce case in secrecy can be found.
After we discovered the hidden divorce filings, we asked Waller County to explain it.
An assistant DA told us Judge Kern confirmed the sealing order “was only for the contents” of the cases, not their existence.
But a month later, we looked again. Still nothing, and it’s unclear why.
What we know about the divorce case involving Jay Sears and his ex-wife Debra comes mostly from this failed complaint to the Texas Supreme Court.
What the lawyers called a writ of mandamus, it accused Judge Kern of repeatedly violating the family code.
Cheating Debra from the very first time Kern took the bench in this highly complicated divorce case.
Jay Sears ignored our calls and we couldn’t get into the country club in Waller County to see his property there. But, we did go to Debra’s home and she answered the door.
“Hi Miss McLeod, I’m Wayne Dolcefino,” Dolcefino told McLeod.
Debra McLeod wouldn’t tell us about the case, but we’ve learned when she first went to court with Kern on the bench, she thought it was just for simple motions.
But when Judge Kern took the bench, he proclaimed, without any testimony, the Sears marriage over without any prior notice, too.
He left the debate over the multi-billion dollar NewQuest fortune for a later date, eliminating the power that Debra McLeod had to control her own destiny.
Among other things, he denied Debra McLeod of her right to a jury trial.
“Do you think Judge Kern has been fair? There are allegations he has bias against women,” Dolcefino asked McLeod.
“I don’t think I should comment,” McLeod answered.
“We want to make sure that everybody is fairly playing by the rules and that there’s not a good-old-boy system in the courts,” attorney Kacal said.
In our motion to unseal the court records in the Sears-McLeod divorce, we called Judge Kern’s rulings in the case “bizarre,” and “a violation of Debra’s due process rights.”
“It is bizarre,” Kacal said.
Who will hear our motion to unseal the secret divorce case in Waller County?
“You guessed it—Judge Kern. Bet he’ll be glad to see me,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“We really want to make sure that the transparency is given to the public so that we can look for ourselves and determine whether or not there’s any improper actions going on in divorce court, at city hall, or anywhere in the county,” Kacal said.
One of our questions is why this hugely complicated divorce case is even filed in Waller County.
Jay Sears clearly lives in Harris County in the Heights. He has a homestead on another house in Houston.
Debra McLeod lives in Harris County too. So, what’s going on here?
“It looks like a case of someone trying to get a home field advantage,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And there’s a real question about whether this divorce case has any business being tried in Waller County, where the politics runs so deep with NewQuest.
Jay Sears must have done a little legal homework before he filed for divorce.
Texas law requires you to live for at least ninety days in the jurisdiction before you can file for divorce there.
He apparently briefly moved into a home at the Houston Oaks Country Club, Northwest of Highway 290, in Waller County.
He then moved back to Houston. Apparently, that was good enough for Judge Kern.
“It just screams and stinks. I would say that much,” Kacal said.
But, that’s not all. The court documents say Debra was forced to wrongly have to arbitrate her claims that her husband and third parties committed fraud on the community estate.
The third parties were more than 200 different NewQuest developments.
NewQuest has lawyered up big time in this case, hiring Baker Botts.
“What’s it like fighting against NewQuest?”
“I can’t talk about the case because it’s sealed,” McLeod answered.
It’s unclear who will fight our motion to let the sunshine in, but the lawyers in the case aren’t returning our calls.
Neither is Judge Kern, who is facing growing complaints.
“I would say this isn’t about a divorce case. This is more about public transparency and trust in the judicial system,” Kacal said.
That’s because Judge Kern is under fire from multiple women who have been in his court in Waller County and claim the judge is biased against women, like Sonia Castillo.
“I was going through hell with my ex,” said Castillo.
“He was kind of belittling, condescending—just the kind of way he spoke to me or addressed me,” Hagendorf said.
“And you think it was because you’re a woman?” Dolcefino asked.
“I really do,” Hagendorf answered.
And Michelle Chung.
“Like, ‘what the hell happened here?’ is how I felt,” Michelle Chung said.
“We don’t think he likes women very much,” Dolcefino said.
“Thank you! Either he doesn’t like women or he doesn’t like Hispanic women,” Castillo said.
Sonia was glad to get rid of her ex, but when we mention the judge, watch her reaction.
“But just the mention of it makes you upset?” Dolcefino asked.
“Not the divorce. The procedure in the court,” Castillo answered.
Kern’s age is an issue too.
“Altogether, he’s too old to be there making decisions for something like this,” Castillo said.
“I’m old-fashioned enough to where I still have a lot of difficulty if I have to go online and use a particular system to get into a file,” Kern said in an interview.
“He actually looked like he was falling asleep a couple of times,” Hagendorf said.
Judge Kern has told Waller County he will only show up in Waller County one day every two months going forward. That will cause huge delays in justice.
This is the new Waller County courthouse. You know what’s missing from it? A real courtroom.
“We’ve filed a motion to open up the records. Do you oppose that?” Dolcefino asked.
“I don’t know what my attorneys have decided to do. I know there’s been discussion about not spending more on attorneys’ fees, but I don’t know what the final decision will be,” McLeod answered.
One thing is indisputable, these divorce cases drag on for years and the public deserves to see why.
“These fights are pretty hard, aren’t they?” Dolcefino asked.
“They are hard, emotionally exhausting, and very expensive,” McLeod answered.
Especially in a court where women are complaining they don’t get a fair shake.
“I promise you, being a female, don’t ever live in Waller if you got issues, because they don’t do nothing for you,” Chung said.
“Let the sunshine in, judge. Justice demands it,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Keep up with us on social media:
