Attorney Jaysen McCleary, known locally as “the dog lawyer,” is a paradox.

He has a mental disability, but also an above-average intellect, a law degree and 10 years of experience as a high-powered investment adviser.

He has been praised by colleagues and clients for challenging local ordinances regulating pit bulls but has also been criticized by judges for making "a farce" of the judicial process, filing frivolous claims and being ignorant of the law.

He claims to have saved at least 10 dogs from being euthanized as vicious animals but suffered a serious brain injury when a trash can loaded with frozen dog feces fell from a garbage truck and struck him, resulting in a recent $2.1 million settlement from the city of Des Moines.

MORE:How McCleary tried to seal court records, stop the Register from publishing a story

The 47-year-old lawyer is, by all accounts, a passionate, caring advocate for animals. But he also has filed numerous ethics complaints against judges; filed a lawsuit over a pygmy goat that died of shock inside his car; suggested another lawyer was in some way involved in a robbery; and told a Polk County judge he was “no better than the scum” sitting in the county jail.

He once stood before an exasperated Polk County judge who told him: “I told you what I told you and I’m not going to say it again … Don’t argue with me … Just sit there and be quiet … Can you do that?”

McCleary has tied up his opponents with litigation and overlapping lawsuits that have cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees, and he has sued the Des Moines Register in an effort to block publication of this story.

Despite all this, and despite the nine days he served in jail for harassing his neighbors with spotlights and loud music, McCleary’s license to practice law is spotless, with no record of any public disciplinary action taken by the Iowa Supreme Court.

In recent weeks, judges at both the state and federal levels have struggled to balance McCleary’s rights as a disabled attorney with their own obligation to protect the integrity of the judicial process.

In the process, they’ve warned McCleary that regardless of his disability, he’s obligated to provide competent representation and file pleadings that are grounded in fact.

McCleary acknowledges that his disability, which he describes as attention-deficit disorder and an acute working-memory deficiency, has affected his law practice.

"My disability has caused me to be extremely misunderstood and, as a result, less effective," McCleary told the Register in November.

Days later, he withdrew his "consent" to publish his on-the-record comments, sued the Register, then asked a judge to hold the newspaper in contempt of court.

McCleary has even taken on his own attorneys, accusing one of legal malpractice, another of overcharging him for legal work, and another of attempting to funnel damaging information about him to a judge through sealed court filings.

Bob Rigg, professor of law at Drake University, said all lawyers, regardless of any disability, have to adhere to a code of professional conduct.

"They owe an obligation to the court for integrity and honesty, and that’s paramount in any lawyer’s practice," he said. "And in civil court, you’re certainly not supposed to bring claims that aren’t bona fide. … You can’t just go off and file a case just to file one."

Bree Buchanan, who works with the American Bar Association on issues related to lawyers’ disabilities, said attorneys generally are required to decline a case or withdraw if they are not competent.

But McCleary isn’t just a lawyer hired to represent clients in court. In most cases, he’s also the plaintiff, suing others while acting as his own attorney.

Over the past six years, he has filed at least 34 lawsuits, many of which include overlapping claims. In 26 lawsuits in which he has been involved, a city, county or their animal-control unit is named as a defendant.

Des Moines officials say that over the past 16 months, the city’s legal department has devoted at least 500 hours of staff time, all at taxpayers' expense, to litigation involving McCleary.

In September, the chief judge of Iowa’s 5th Judicial District, Arthur Gamble, sanctioned McCleary for using the courts to harass Des Moines city officials and needlessly increase the city’s legal expenses.

Gamble said McCleary "acted with a high degree of frivolousness," was ignorant of the law in the case, was guilty of “professional incompetence” and was motivated by a personal “vendetta” against the city.

Gamble recently agreed to put a hold on his order for sanctions against McCleary because of jurisdictional issues after McCleary argued that, under the American with Disabilities Act, he should have been afforded more time to argue why the sanctions were undeserved.

In the past five years, McCleary or his co-counsel, Cami Eslick, have asked at least 18 judges to recuse themselves from cases in which McCleary is involved, in some cases citing the judges’ alleged bias, “personal animosity” or “deep hatred” of McCleary.

Between them, the two attorneys also have filed ethics complaints against 10 judges.

Eslick said McCleary strongly believes the city isn’t following its own laws and policies when it comes to euthanizing dogs it considers dangerous.

"These animals don’t have a voice," she said. "He wants the court to take these cases seriously, and sometimes they don’t. … He’s incredibly smart, and he has a passion to help these animals."

One of McCleary’s clients, MacKenzie Rumsey of Des Moines, said McCleary saved her dog, Malice, from being euthanized.

"I think Mr. McCleary is a hero," she said. "He did what nobody else could have, or even would have, tried to do to help me. He saved my innocent dog from a wrongful death and helped us get our lives back."

Iowa attorney Nicholas Rowley, who represented McCleary in his personal injury lawsuit against the city of Des Moines, said McCleary has provided a valuable legal service to the community.

"He has been saving dogs’ lives and getting them back into the hands of their owners — which include kids and, sometimes, elderly people and that’s their only companion,” Rowley said. "He has done some really great work."

A few months ago, Rowley was planning to assist McCleary with mentoring and legal advice on the condition that McCleary takes a year off from practicing law while working on brain rehabilitation, Rowley said.

McCleary chose not to do that, Rowley said, so there will be no mentoring.

"He’s not a real rational guy, but nobody’s ever mentored him or taught him how to practice law," Rowley said, adding that a good lawyer who’s passionate about his cases isn’t always rational. "He has a disability, and he also has a brain injury through no fault of his own, and that makes matters worse."

McCleary said he's not going to let his disability prevent him from continuing to fight for the rights of animals and their owners.

"I am trying to help others," he said. “I have subjected myself to arrest, to ridicule, to humiliation — to every possible embarrassing thing you can think of, all to try to help people and to save dogs.”

From Wall Street to the courtroom

In 1997, after earning his law degree at the University of Iowa, McCleary passed the Iowa bar exam.

He said he was given extra time to take his law school tests, the bar exam and the test for brokers of commodity futures. He couldn't have succeeded without these accommodations, he said.

He spent the next decade working as an investment adviser in California and New York, first for Lehman Brothers, then Salomon Smith Barney and then-Deutsche Bank Securities, according to court records.

In 2009, an arbitration panel ruled that McCleary owed Deutsche Bank $1.7 million for unpaid loans and legal expenses.

Transcripts of the arbitration hearing indicate that McCleary accused the panel of acting “like a pack of wolves” and repeatedly referenced perceived slights from one of the panel members, saying: "Let the record reflect he is making another face … Let the record reflect (he) finds that funny … Let the record reflect he just winked with his right eye."

McCleary disputed the transcript, which his attorney made public as part of a lawsuit filed on McCleary's behalf, saying he never compared the panel to a pack of wolves.

With a $1.7 million judgment against him, McCleary filed for bankruptcy in 2009 while he was living in Des Moines. Court records indicate he was collecting $18,000 per month, or $216,000 per year, in disability income from insurance policies tied to his past earnings on Wall Street.

Over the next eight years, McCleary practiced law, sometimes representing himself in lawsuits against the cities of Des Moines and West Des Moines, but also suing local municipalities on behalf of dog owners whose pets had been declared vicious.

Many of those cases would include allegations from McCleary that the judges, lawyers or city officials involved were biased or dishonest.

McCleary said that although the accusations were founded, his language was an issue because of his past work in the rough-and-tumble world of Wall Street.

“I wasn’t trained properly in how to say things in a courtroom,” he said, describing himself as a “self-taught” lawyer.

In the past month, McCleary has filed motions in several cases seeking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act but then sought to have those requests sealed from public view.

In one federal case, McCleary was recently granted twice the normal amount of time allotted attorneys to file papers with the court but was also given a 48-hour deadline to file other papers a judge said were long overdue.

McCleary has objected, saying the court's order violates his rights under the ADA.

In recent weeks, McCleary launched a multi-pronged effort to block the publication of this article. He persuaded a federal judge to seal all of the records in a civil case that had been public for the past eight years.

After a Polk County judge refused to issue an order blocking publication of this article, McCleary obtained a temporary order from an Iowa Supreme Court justice after arguing that the Register’s article would irreparably harm his practice and the clients whose dogs he’s trying to save.

The justice lifted the temporary stay Tuesday.

Judges accused of bias, hatred

On Nov. 21, 2012, shortly after midnight, McCleary sent an email to Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hutchison, who recently had ruled against McCleary in a case, accusing the judge of ethical misconduct.

In part, McCleary's email read:

"Your shameless cover-up for your circle of buddies will not go unaddressed. Hopefully I never have to deal with your arrogant unethical behavior again … In my book you’re no better than the convicted scum you sentence to jail several times a month.”

McCleary later apologized to Hutchison. The Iowa Supreme Court subsequently issued a sanction with a written admonishment but omitted McCleary’s name, referring to him only as “Attorney Doe No. 792.”

McCleary said the email represents one of his biggest mistakes, but in a subsequent court case, he noted that he had filed an ethics complaint against Hutchison because the judge “went out of his way to file a frivolous and vague complaint” against him for sending the email.

McCleary said he can no longer get a fair hearing in Polk County because judges know he is Attorney Doe No. 792 and they are friends with Hutchison.

In one court filing, he wrote that when he went to the Polk County Courthouse, it was as if he had “a scarlet letter or label, ‘This is Attorney Doe!’”

Among his criticisms of judges is a 2015 claim that District Court Judge Dennis Stovall’s personal hatred toward him had "spread to several of his colleagues."

He also asked that Judge Mary Pat Gunderson recuse herself from a case, citing her “snarky” demeanor, her body language, angry facial expressions and the “red tint” of her skin.

As part of a 2016 lawsuit against the city of Des Moines and the Animal Rescue League that he eventually abandoned, McCleary asked another Polk County judge, Glenn Pille, to recuse himself, citing Pille’s “extreme disdain” and “hatred” for him.

The case was handed over to Judge David Porter, but McCleary’s attorney asked Porter to recuse himself for "blatant prejudice.” Porter denied any bias but recused himself after McCleary’s attorney stated in court filings that she had filed an ethics complaint against Porter.

The case was then handed to Judge Brad McCall, who sanctioned McCleary and ordered him to pay $11,000 to the ARL for its costs in the case.

McCleary then asked McCall to recuse himself, citing the judge’s “outrageous bias.” After McCall refused, McCleary filed an ethics complaint against him for being “intellectually dishonest” and biased.

Other cases have followed a similar pattern:

Last year, McCleary filed a motion in federal court agreeing to dismiss a lawsuit against Des Moines, stating that pursuing the case would be “an obvious waste of time” because two of Iowa’s federal judges, Celeste Bremer and Stephanie Rose, were determined to “do their worst” to him. He alleged Rose had “obvious disdain” for him from a time back to their law school days, and claimed Bremer had “no problem yelling” at him in court.

In a 2014 lawsuit against West Des Moines, McCleary accused District Court Judge Richard Blane of willfully ignoring the law and, citing an ethics complaint he had filed against the judge, asked Blane to recuse himself. Two months later, he asked the replacement judge, Michael Huppert, to recuse himself, citing Huppert’s “rude demeanor and tone.”

In 2014, McCleary sued two of his neighbors for trespassing on his property, infliction of emotional distress and other claims. McCleary failed to appear at a settlement conference, his lawyer telling the judge that McCleary was in Montana caring for a baby bison. After District Court Judge Karen Romano twice refused McCleary’s request to recuse herself because of her “snarky, disrespectful, doubtful (and) distrusting demeanor,” McCleary’s co-counsel filed an ethics complaint against Romano and cited that complaint in arguing that Romano should recuse herself. The case was assigned to Judge Porter, who within a week recused himself because of an ethics complaint McCleary’s co-counsel filed against him. The case then went to Judge McCall, whom McCleary later asked to recuse himself in the ARL case.

In 2015, as part of a lawsuit against Iowa State University veterinarians for the treatment of his dog, McCleary asked Judge Stovall to recuse himself, citing the judge’s “personal relationship” with Eric Parrish, who had been McCleary’s attorney until the two had a falling out. McCleary also filed an ethics complaint against Stovall. The case was transferred to Judge Huppert, whom McCleary eventually asked to recuse himself, arguing that the judge’s “good friend,” Judge Hutchison, had tried to have McCleary’s law license revoked.

In a pending defamation lawsuit against one of his neighbors’ relatives, McCleary alleged he had security-camera footage of the opposing lawyer in the case, Michael Kent, at the site of what McCleary described as “a so-called robbery” that others had tried to blame on him. “He’s on my security tape walking around,” McCleary told the court. “There’s something going on that makes this very strange.” Kent denied that he was in the video and later notified the judge that in a court filing McCleary had substituted the “e” in Kent’s last name with another vowel, illustrating the “level to which (McCleary) has sunk.”

Attorneys for the Animal Rescue League say that by filing ethics complaints against judges and using those complaints to support his arguments for recusal, McCleary is manufacturing bias and engaging in “judge shopping.”

McCleary said he stands by every motion for recusal that he’s filed and adds that he has appeared before at least 18 other judges without asking them to recuse themselves.

Charges and a 9-day jail sentence

McCleary’s conflicts aren’t limited to the judiciary.

In May 2013, McCleary attempted to purchase three pygmy goats from a Council Bluffs couple, Mark and Debra Oman.

According to McClearly, after he arrived at the Omans’ farm and purchased a goat named Amy, he loaded the animal into a portable kennel and placed it inside his car with his three large dogs.

He then went to negotiate a price on the other goats. When he returned to his car, he found that the dogs had locked the doors with the keys inside the vehicle and had broken into the goat’s kennel.

McCleary injured his hand trying to break into the vehicle to rescue the goat, which died of fright. McCleary then sued the Omans, arguing they should have warned him goats are sensitive to dogs.

He also tried to force the Omans to sell him two more goats. The Omans refused, then complained to the county sheriff.

McCleary wasn't charged, but the county sheriff warned him that he was close to crossing the line from “civil dispute to criminal harassment.”

In 2014, McCleary was arrested and charged with harassing his neighbors by blasting loud, profane music from his home for five days, which police officers said they could hear a block away.

He was also accused of aiming high-intensity spotlights from the second floor of his house on Kingman Boulevard into the windows of a neighbor’s home.

As part of the harassment case, McCleary asked two judges to recuse themselves. He also accused a neighbor of being “a malicious, aggressive lying harasser who is easily manipulating countless city officials, making them foolish pawns in his campaign of harassment.”

After his conviction on misdemeanor charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, McCleary was sentenced to nine days in jail. He then accused prosecutors of misconduct, his attorney of providing ineffective assistance and the judge of imposing an “illegal sentence.”

He also filed a lawsuit alleging his neighbors and the police had conspired to have him "falsely convicted."

After McCleary accused the trial judge, Thomas Mott, of improper conduct, District Court Judge Jeffrey Farrell warned McCleary that if he had not already crossed the ethical line of making a statement with reckless disregard to the truth, he had come “very close to doing so here.”

Six months ago, while representing a woman who is suing the city of Hubbard over a dispute involving her dog, McCleary accused the city’s attorney of contributing to a client’s death through “aggressive” questioning at a deposition that took place 13 weeks earlier.

In court filings, he claimed that the lawyer’s questioning had caused emotional distress that triggered “acute respiratory problems that ultimately killed (the client) only months later.”

Eslick, the lawyer who has acted as McCleary’s attorney and co-counsel in several cases, said she’s concerned some judges don’t take dog-related cases seriously.

"He keeps fighting though, and he should," she said. "A lot of people wouldn’t take on these cases."