Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, acquitted of murder in July, is suing his former lawyers and a veterans legal defense fund, alleging they intentionally delayed his trial in a “money-making scheme.”
Gallagher’s complaint, filed Friday, names Colby Vokey, Phillip Stackhouse, and United American Patriots as defendants. It comes one month after Vokey filed a mediation claim seeking $1 million from Gallagher for alleged unpaid legal fees.
“While the Gallagher family definitely wanted to expose this wrongdoing and ensure that no other service members are similarly victimized by these people, they never intended to do this through a federal civil lawsuit,” Tim Parlatore, Gallagher’s current lawyer, told the Washington Examiner.
Gallagher’s complaint alleges Vokey and UAP engaged in a “dark and predatory money-making scheme.” It claims that Vokey, at the time a UAP board member, persuaded Gallagher to hire him by promising his legal fees would be covered by the organization. The complaint goes on to allege Vokey and Stackhouse allowed Gallagher to “languish in pretrial confinement for several months, while engaging in delay tactics and needlessly running up the legal bills.”
Vokey and Stackhouse filed a motion to get Gallagher released from confinement in January, but the judge overseeing the case rejected it. Gallagher was later released by the judge in May. He terminated his relationship with Vokey, Stackhouse, and UAP in March and hired Parlatore, who defended him in court, in July.
“Overall, UAP finds Mr. Parlatore’s overly dramatic filing very disturbing and distracting from all of the good work which UAP continues to do for fight for our Warrior’s Rights,” UAP president David Gurfein told the Washington Examiner. “Some of Mr. Parlatore’s defamatory and slanderous comments are irresponsible, inaccurate, and potentially sanctionable, casting false accusations against UAP and me simply to make his claims appear emotionally stronger than they actually are in reality.”
Gurfein also said UAP is “disappointed” that Gallagher’s complaint named UAP as “potentially responsible for legal fees” when UAP provided the Gallagher family $77,000, which he said was more than UAP actually raised for Gallagher.
“It’s disappointing it’s come to this, but I’m confident the court will sort it out in the most appropriate manner,” Stackhouse told the Washington Examiner in an email.
Vokey’s attorney, Van Shaw, who represented him in his claim against Gallagher, did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
The timing for the Gallagher family is not ideal, Parlatore said.
“They certainly didn’t intend to do this until after their case was resolved, because we don’t need the distraction while the [chief of naval operations] is still deciding Eddie’s ultimate fate.”
Gallagher was found not guilty of murder and other war crimes but convicted for unlawfully taking a picture with the corpse of the ISIS fighter he was accused of killing. In an unusual move, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson took over the case after Navy prosecutors were discovered to have engaged in questionable behavior, including sending emails to Gallagher’s defense team embedded with tracking software. Richardson will decide whether Gallagher will be able to retire with a pension and at what rank.
Parlatore said Gallagher’s and Vokey’s cases will be consolidated and held in federal civil court for the district of north Texas. A trial date is pending.
[Previous coverage: Eddie Gallagher says he wouldn’t trade his time in the SEALs ‘for anything’ after war crimes trial]
