This morning we shared details of Todd P’Pool’s effort to get pro-Jack Conway attacks (against him) pulled from the airwaves.

Mr. PeePee tried to rip things apart with three separate facts. Not exactly a good thing for the pro-Conway group (that is allegedly funded by Jack’s dad, fyi).

So we started digging on the googlebox and found this:

After the verdict was made public, University Hospital sent us this statement: “We respectfully disagree with decision by the jury. We do not believe the facts support this decision and we will appeal this verdict. Unfortunately, no one truly wins in these situations, and our sympathy goes out to the Beglin family and all the defendants during this very difficult time.

Similarities started leaking out all over the place:

1. P’Pool won a $500,000 jury award in a civil case at the Circuit Court level. Conway won a $9 million award at the Circuit Court level.
2. Both cases were appealed by the defendants
3. Neither Todd Peepee nor Jack Conway represented their client(s) at the appellate stage. Their client(s) agreed to hire different lawyers for the appeals process. Assuming the response filed by DB Law Group (representing P’Pool) is 100% accurate, P’pool didn’t handle the appeals in the slander case. According to the actual Appellate Court opinion, Jack Conway didn’t handle the appeals in his personal injury case. In both cases, separate counsel were hired. P’Pool’s client hired Phillip Shephard. Jack’s client? Hired Tom Conway and Chad Gardner (see the last page – WARNING: PDF Link).
4. The lawyers handling appeals in both of those cases were compensated for their work per agreement with their clients.

In our opinion: Unless Tom Conway and Chad Gardner provided their counsel free of charge, then Jack Conway is a gigantic hypocrite for refusing to call for the attack ad on his behalf be pulled. He knows it’s standard practice in appealed cases that there’s an additional fee for counsel handling the appellate work. Jack did the same damn thing in the Beglin case that his friends/staff/allies are accusing Todd P’Pool of doing in the Pool case. (And, really, this is also a sign that P’Pool has less-than-stellar counsel because they didn’t bother citing the Beglin case – which is powerful enough for us to bring it up.)

But the mainstream media won’t hold Jack accountable. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Here are the questions they should be asking, though (HINT HINT KET):

• What was Jack’s percentage of the fee his father and Chad Gardner received from the Beglin Family for handling appeals work?
• As a partner in the Conway firm, did Jack personally receive any portion of his father’s fee for appeals work?
• How is the case Jack handled any different than the case P’Pool handled?
• In light of the case Jack handled for the Beglin Family and the similarities to P’Pool’s case, should he disavow the attack ad as bogus?
• Given these similarities, if Jack is unwilling to sack up and call for the attack ad to be pulled, doesn’t that make him a hypocrite?

On a semi-related note: Jack Conway’s handling of the Beglin Family case was likely THE source of the millions of dollars he invested in Kinder-Morgan Energy. THE funds he used as a line of credit to help fund his U.S. Senate primary bid.

On January 16, 2009 the Appeals Court opinion was released. The defendants (UofL) would have likely been required to put the amount of the original jury award in escrow (or some percentage of it) pending the outcome of the appeal. Once the Appeals Court upheld the Circuit Court ruling and UofL didn’t appeal to the Supreme Court, those funds would have been released in a matter of days/weeks to the attorney who filed the case– Jack Conway. Meaning Jack probably pocked 35-40% of the $9 million and his dad and Chad Gardner got their likely fee of 10-25% sometime in February or March 2009. Just a few weeks before Jack formally launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Mere days before he invested up to $5 million in Kinder-Morgan Energy. Note: Jack’s statements to the press at the time, along with his Ethics Disclosure Form, those funds were invested in Kinder-Morgan between January 2009 and March 31, 2009. According to his U.S. Senate Financial Disclosure Form, he established his $1-$5 million line of credit with Hilliard-Lyons in late March 2009. He formally launched his campaign on April 3, 2009.