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A Houston judge has declined to recuse himself from litigation involving high-profile Texas attorneys based on a plaintiff's allegation that lawyers' political contributions to the judge's reelection campaign raise an appearance of impropriety.

Because 127th District Judge R.K. Sandill will not recuse himself, the area's presiding judge will now assign a visiting judge to hear the recusal motion in Hill v. Blue.

The motion is the latest saga in a long-running dispute involving Albert Hill III and his former attorneys, prominent Dallas litigators Lisa Blue, Charla Aldous, Stephen Malouf, as well as six other lawyers and two law firms.

Hill argued that Sandill should recuse himself because two defendants, Blue and Jeff Tillotson, donated money to his reelection campaign just after Hill had filed the lawsuit. He claimed the timing might raise a question about the judge's impartiality in hearing the matter.

But in reply, Blue and Tillotson both argued that they're frequent political contributors for judges. They added they had donated repeatedly to Sandill's past campaigns, and there was nothing unusual or suspicious about their most recent contributions.

The underlying dispute might seem familiar to some in the Dallas legal community because Hill's multiple legal troubles—million-dollar fee disputes with his attorneys, criminal charges, and resulting litigation—have made headlines over the past decade.

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In the current iteration, Hill alleges that the defendants acted in concert to secure false criminal charges against him by pressuring and using campaign contributions to bribe former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins to pursue a four-count felony mortgage fraud indictment against him in 2011, according to an Oct. 1 third amended petition.

Read the petition:

A trial court in 2013 dismissed the indictments for prosecutorial misconduct, finding that Hill's father, Albert Hill Jr., initiated the prosecution and Blue improperly procured the charges. The Fifth Court in 2018 upheld the dismissal.

Those charges were related to allegations that he committed mortgage fraud to get a $500,000 loan that he intended to use for liquidity purposes as he was embroiled in litigation with his father.

Other pleadings in the case reveal that the defendants were tied to that underlying litigation, either serving as Hill's attorneys, or as opposing counsel for his father. Those defendants who at one point served as Hill's attorneys, wound up being in fee-dispute litigation with him, where they won multimillion-dollar fee awards, according to court documents.

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Lisa Blue Baron of Baron and Blue.

Hill's petition alleged that Blue and Hill's father were the ones who initiated criminal charges against him in 2010 by giving false information to the district attorney's office.

Both Blue and Tillotson, another defendant who was a law partner of Michael Lynn, who represented Hill's father, donated money or made pledges to Watkins' election campaign. Hill alleges the contributions were part of their pressure or control of Watkins to bring the Hill indictment.

The defendants are Blue, Tillotson, Malouf, Aldous, Lynn, Justin Campbell, Robin Harrison, John Dagley, Suzanne Goss, Campbell Harrison & Dagley, and Norris & Weber. All of them denied the allegations. Some defendants also alleged that this is a frivolous lawsuit and Hill is a vexatious litigant who already filed and lost a federal court lawsuit that had made the same allegations.

All the defendants also have argued that the court should dismiss Hill's lawsuit. They allege his claims are based on their rights to free speech regarding speaking among themselves, or making campaign contributions to Watkins, freedom to petition the government regarding reporting Hill's alleged crimes to the district attorney's office, and freedom to associate.

Read Blue's motion to dismiss:

Hill's attorney, Houston solo practitioner Arthur Feldman, declined to comment. So did Aldous, who represents herself pro se, and Koning Rubarts partner Paul Koning of Dallas, who represents Lynn. Other defendants' attorneys didn't return emails seeking comment before deadline.

Tillotson's attorney, Shawn Long, wrote in an email that Tillotson was never involved in the previous Hill litigation and he had nothing to do with Hill's criminal case. The lawsuit includes one allegation against Tillotson regarding a campaign contribution for the district attorney's reelection.

Long, a partner in Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Dallas, said, "He is being sued merely because he made legal, unrelated and publicly disclosed campaign contributions, something he has done for hundreds of other candidates over the years."