Top US bankruptcy judge resigns amid ethics inquiry

investing.com:

By Dietrich Knauth and Nate Raymond

(Reuters) — U.S. bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston has resigned after a federal appeals court opened an ethics probe spurred by a previously undisclosed romantic relationship with an attorney whose firm had cases before his court, ending his tenure as the busiest bankruptcy judge in the U.S.

Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane of the Southern District of Texas told Reuters on Sunday that Jones resigned, effective Nov. 15. Jones had already stepped back from overseeing large bankruptcy cases and began reassigning them to two other judges on the court.

Neither Jones nor his courtroom deputy immediately responded to requests for comment.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a formal misconduct complaint against Jones on Friday, after the judge revealed he has been in a years-long romantic relationship and shared a home with bankruptcy attorney Elizabeth Freeman. Until December 2022, Freeman had been a partner at Jackson Walker, a local law firm that filed many cases in Jones' Houston courthouse.

The 5th Circuit said Jones had kept information about his personal relationship from two other judges who oversaw an effort to recuse him from a dispute involving bankrupt energy company McDermott International.

Ethics experts have said the undisclosed relationship casts doubt on the integrity of Jones' court. The misconduct complaint has already led to a call for further review in the case of Tehum Care Services, a bankrupt affiliate of prison healthcare company Corizon, and could lead to similar challenges in other cases in which Freeman or Jackson Walker were involved.

Jackson Walker declined to comment on the resignation, but resisted any suggestion their