Joseph conte houston

James J. Gaunt , a Catholic priest and longtime family friend who met the Contes during his years as teacher and principal at Houston's St. Thomas High School, initially advised the Contes to go to the courts but quickly regretted it. The Conte family's troubles began not long after Joe Conte collapsed and died after his regular weekly trip to buy groceries. Conte had envisioned that his children, Joe Jr. Joe Jr. The Conte siblings fought over the care of their mother, who suffered a series of small strokes after losing her husband.

The court found Doris Conte unable to manage her affairs. Two lawyers, appointed to represent her at the time, recommended liquidating the family trust assets, including their River Oaks home, a place Susan Conte felt her mother could not bear to lose. To avoid that, the Conte siblings agreed to allow Miller, an accountant they had not previously met, to run their trusts and review their financial records. The Contes insist that Austin personally recommended Miller and believe the judge gave them little choice: "I never heard of that woman before I met that judge," Susan Conte said.

Austin denies he pushed Miller or even that he strongly recommended her. In a letter he sent to the Chronicle about the case, he wrote: "They chose Mrs.

Miller after an exhausting inquiry of corporate fiduciaries. According to court records, the Contes signed an order that originally limited the agreement to six months and said that, at the termination of the appointment, the Contes would be "reinstated without further Order of this Court.

Austin then hand-altered the document to make Miller's appointment "continue until terminated by court order. Later, in a series of hearings, he extended the agreement for seven years. In interviews, Austin emphasized that the Contes did not frequently object and instead praised Miller. At first, the Contes assumed that Miller had done other probate work.

However, Miller admits she had never run a trust, though she had done accounting work on trusts. The Contes' cash quickly dwindled.

In , Miller began the first of multiple attempts to sell their properties. It was then that Joe Conte Jr. In an objection he filed in court records, Conte described her efforts as "fraudulent and illegal and solely for Miller, her associates and agents to personally profit Later that year, the Contes persuaded Judge Austin to stop the sale of one of their downtown properties after proving that Miller was pushing to sell below market value.

Austin did approve, at Miller's request, another deal, however, for the sale of 2. But that deal was nothing, the family said, compared with the one with a tax dodger and a criminal.

Miller pushed through a year lease on property the family owned near the Toyota Center — even though no rent would be paid to the family for the first four years. At the time, Joe Conte Jr.

It turned out that the tenant had unpaid taxes and had received deferred adjudication on prostitution and theft charges in and , records show. In , he pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy, drug sales and unlawful travel as part of a multistate drug ring based in Louisiana, according to federal court documents. The Contes had to hire an attorney to evict him. Miller said she was aware of some of the tenant's legal problems but didn't know he was involved in a drug ring.

She says she shared specifics of all the deals with the family. Others who worked on the Conte case gave Austin money, too, including an appraiser, a CPA, lawyers and the doctor who had examined Conte and recommended she be declared unable to manage her own affairs.

Such contributions are legal and subject to Texas disclosure laws, though critics claim they may present an appearance of impropriety. Texas judicial rules generally do not require judges to disclose campaign-related relationships in court. However, Lillian Hardwick, co-author of the Handbook of Texas Lawyer and Judicial Ethics , said it might have been prudent in this case for Austin to tell the Contes that Miller was serving as his treasurer.

Austin said he felt it was unnecessary because it was a matter of public record. He said Miller did not help him raise money, though her name appeared on fundraising letters. They were furious. That same year, Miller had requested authorization from Austin to put all the Conte properties on the market, including their home. After the Contes objected, Miller, who had previously talked about resigning, stepped down from their case. She also stopped serving as Austin's treasurer. But before her work ended, Austin signed one more document in Miller's favor.

This one could protect her from the Contes. No person or entity shall have any cause of actions against Paula Miller or any of her actions or inactions Doris Conte, 81, is now the only family member who gets any money from the family trusts, which are now being run by Frost Bank under court order.

Hence, the matter is still pending before the Court. Conte hopes that opinion will pave the way for her to be reappointed trustee to the family estate — as do her brother and her mother. The ruling does not mean the Contes will get back any of their money. The newspaper's analysis of probate fees awarded across Texas from January to December showed that payments ordered by Austin in the case were among the state's highest.

Doris Conte, who has been disabled by a series of small strokes, was able to remain home with help from her daughter and a live-in caregiver. Not long after their father's death, the siblings began to argue over money and their mother's care. Ultimately, they sued each other. In , Susan and her mother went to the probate courts to seek help.

Instead, the Contes have contended, the probate court made things worse. Austin initially appointed a young accountant with no experience running a trust to oversee the Conte case. He also ordered additional payments to 10 different law firms.

When Austin's temporary appointee stepped down in , the judge selected a bank to run the trusts instead of Susan Conte. He ruled Conte "violated the terms" of the trust by charging for personal expenses, and those debts amounted to a conflict of interest that prohibited her from serving as trustee. In the appeal, Conte's attorneys called the rulings "paternalistic decisionmaking" that had "no foundation in the law or the evidence.