Houston attorney Ronald "Ronny" Krist was charged with misdemeanor assault last week for slapping a plaintiff's attorney before a deposition.

Krist, a retired personal injury attorney who founded the Krist Law Firm, is accused of slapping litigator Greg Enos while visiting Enos' office for a deposition. Security camera footage and a police report documented the incident.

Enos, owner of The Enos Law Firm in Webster, was representing Jessica Vickery, who is suing Krist and two other Houston attorneys, Richard Morrison and Roy Mease, over a 45% contingent attorney fee they charged on annuity payments her mother won in a 1994 divorce case against Baytown lawyer Glenn Vickery. Jessica Vickery's mother paid her attorneys $6.5 million between 1995 and 2017.

Ronald Krist.

Krist's attorneys were scheduled to take Jessica Vickery's deposition Aug. 21, and Krist came along to listen.

Krist made a name for himself in legal circles by recovering multimillion-dollar settlements and verdicts in high-profile cases, including lawsuits brought by families of astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire and the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

In the surveillance video, Enos emerges from a door into a hallway. Krist, wearing a blue-and-white patterned shirt, walks down the hallway toward Enos, followed by his lawyer and son, Scott Krist. Ronny Krist stops in front of Enos and shakes a finger at him several times while talking to Enos. A couple of seconds later, Ronny Krist slaps Enos across the face.

Enos doesn't show much reaction. The pair appear to talk for about 20 seconds, flanked by Scott Krist. About 30 seconds after the slap, Enos walks away from them down the hallway.

According to an Aug. 21 incident report by the Webster Police Department, four officers responded to a report of an assault at Enos' law office around 1 p.m. They spoke to Enos and gathered information about the incident. Officers then spoke with Ronny Krist.

Police charged Krist with class C misdemeanor assault by contact, which carries a maximum fine of $500 and no jail time.

Scott Krist, owner of the Krist Law Firm in Houston, said Enos made "fraudulent allegations"  in Vickery's petition that are "categorically incorrect."

Greg Enos, The Enos Law Firm.

"Mr. Enos at the beginning of this lawsuit made contact with Ronny and was very disrespectful," Scott Krist said. "Stemming from that phone call, he's continued being disrespectful."

Enos said he can't recall saying anything disrespectful in a phone call with Ronny Krist about five or six months ago.

Just before the slap, Ronny Krist confronted Enos and warned him not to be disrespectful again, or "I'm going to slap the shit out of you," recalled Scott Krist.

Enos remembers the comment differently. He said Ronny Krist said "he would kick my ass," and Enos replied, "I would like to see that happen."

Scott Krist said, "Mr. Enos, rather than apologizing for having made him perceive the conversation that way, instead said, 'I wish you would try,' and 83-year-old Ronny Krist slapped the shit out of him, and deservedly so."

Enos, a family law attorney, shared that he has dealt with his share of angry litigants—bitter divorcees and parents losing custody of their children. But this is the first time a litigant ever struck him, Enos said. Ronny Krist's slap was painful, and gave him a small cut on the back of his head, said Enos, who guessed it came from a ring on Krist's finger.

"The slap was really loud," he said. "People 30 feet away heard it."

Enos said that the incident happened so fast that he never got a chance to meet Krist's lawyers.

"His lawyers seemed amused by what he did. If my client did that, I think I'd be angry at my client, and to try to intervene on behalf of the lawyer," he said. "Once I said I was calling the police, they very intelligently got their client out of there, so he couldn't be arrested on the spot."

Enos added that he canceled Vickery's deposition because of Ronny Krist's behavior.

"It scared her," he explained.

He said he intends to reschedule the deposition inside a courthouse that has security guards available. Enos also plans to file a complaint against Krist with the State Bar of Texas, and Krist's assault may come up in Vickery's litigation.

"The judge of the case involving him and Ms. Vickery is going to have to make some decisions about his conduct, and security," Enos said.

But Scott Krist said he's not worried about those types of consequences. He said that Ronny Krist is not sorry, and he stands behind the slap.

"Mr. Enos got what he deserved," Scott Krist said. "He incited the situation by being disrespectful in the first place, and then choosing a second-grade taunt, 'I wish to see you try.'"

Read the police report:

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