🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨: Tarrant County, Texas - Texas House Zdenka “Zee” Wilcox Sues Trump Endorsed Senate Candidate and attorney, David Cook. Alleges FORGED Court Document in Family Law Case.
A Tarrant County woman and candidate for Texas House District 98 has filed a civil lawsuit accusing her former attorney and his law firm of serious professional misconduct, including allegedly altering a signed court document without her consent during a high-risk family law case.
Zdenka “Zee” Wilcox, a domestic-violence survivor and former public-school teacher, filed suit on February 5, 2026, in Tarrant County District Court against Fort Worth attorney David Lee Cook and his firm, Harris Cook LLP. Cook, a sitting state representative and a Trump-endorsed candidate for Texas Senate District 22, represented Wilcox beginning in July 2024 in family court proceedings that carried the potential for incarceration and loss of child custody.
According to Wilcox’s petition, she paid a substantial retainer and entered into a formal attorney-client relationship with Cook.
At the center of the lawsuit is a Rule 11 Agreement, a binding settlement document commonly used in Texas family law cases. Wilcox stated that she reviewed and signed one version of the agreement around August 7, 2024. After she signed it, someone affiliated with Cook and/or his firm lifted her signature and authentication details and attached them to a materially different version of the document.
The altered agreement reportedly contained new substantive provisions, references to court proceedings, and legal consequences that significantly changed Wilcox’s position. She claims she never saw, approved, or authorized these modifications and was never informed that her signature had been reused on a different document.
Despite this, the modified agreement was transmitted to opposing counsel, relied upon in court, and defended by Cook and his firm in subsequent proceedings, to Wilcox’s detriment.
The lawsuit further states that Cook later acknowledged to attorney disciplinary authorities that the document had been modified after Wilcox signed it, though he reportedly attempted to justify the changes as “being in her best interest”. Wilcox maintains she never gave permission for any alterations or for her signature to be repurposed.
In her petition, Wilcox brings multiple claims in the alternative, including breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and fraud by nondisclosure, and legal malpractice and professional negligence. She also seeks to hold Harris Cook LLP vicariously liable, arguing the firm ratified the conduct by accepting its benefits and failing to correct the alleged misconduct after learning of it.
Wilcox is seeking actual damages for additional legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses, full forfeiture and disgorgement of fees paid to Cook and the firm, declaratory relief voiding any unauthorized version of the Rule 11 Agreement, exemplary damages where permitted, interest, court costs, and other relief. She has demanded a jury trial.
“This madness is happening to so many innocent parents and it has to end,” Wilcox said. “Especially survivors get destroyed in these courts.”
In a statement provided to me by Wilcox, she detailed the circumstances under which she hired Cook.
“I am a domestic-violence survivor. I hired David Cook while I was terrified and trying to protect myself and my 9-year-old child from continued abuse by my ex after our divorce,” she said. “I was a public-school teacher on a teacher’s salary, but I paid Cook $500 an hour because he was recommended by Tim O’Hare as one of the best family-law attorneys in Tarrant County.”
Continue in thread 👇
A Tarrant County woman and candidate for Texas House District 98 has filed a civil lawsuit accusing her former attorney and his law firm of serious professional misconduct, including allegedly altering a signed court document without her consent during a high-risk family law case.
Zdenka “Zee” Wilcox, a domestic-violence survivor and former public-school teacher, filed suit on February 5, 2026, in Tarrant County District Court against Fort Worth attorney David Lee Cook and his firm, Harris Cook LLP. Cook, a sitting state representative and a Trump-endorsed candidate for Texas Senate District 22, represented Wilcox beginning in July 2024 in family court proceedings that carried the potential for incarceration and loss of child custody.
According to Wilcox’s petition, she paid a substantial retainer and entered into a formal attorney-client relationship with Cook.
At the center of the lawsuit is a Rule 11 Agreement, a binding settlement document commonly used in Texas family law cases. Wilcox stated that she reviewed and signed one version of the agreement around August 7, 2024. After she signed it, someone affiliated with Cook and/or his firm lifted her signature and authentication details and attached them to a materially different version of the document.
The altered agreement reportedly contained new substantive provisions, references to court proceedings, and legal consequences that significantly changed Wilcox’s position. She claims she never saw, approved, or authorized these modifications and was never informed that her signature had been reused on a different document.
Despite this, the modified agreement was transmitted to opposing counsel, relied upon in court, and defended by Cook and his firm in subsequent proceedings, to Wilcox’s detriment.
The lawsuit further states that Cook later acknowledged to attorney disciplinary authorities that the document had been modified after Wilcox signed it, though he reportedly attempted to justify the changes as “being in her best interest”. Wilcox maintains she never gave permission for any alterations or for her signature to be repurposed.
In her petition, Wilcox brings multiple claims in the alternative, including breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and fraud by nondisclosure, and legal malpractice and professional negligence. She also seeks to hold Harris Cook LLP vicariously liable, arguing the firm ratified the conduct by accepting its benefits and failing to correct the alleged misconduct after learning of it.
Wilcox is seeking actual damages for additional legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses, full forfeiture and disgorgement of fees paid to Cook and the firm, declaratory relief voiding any unauthorized version of the Rule 11 Agreement, exemplary damages where permitted, interest, court costs, and other relief. She has demanded a jury trial.
“This madness is happening to so many innocent parents and it has to end,” Wilcox said. “Especially survivors get destroyed in these courts.”
In a statement provided to me by Wilcox, she detailed the circumstances under which she hired Cook.
“I am a domestic-violence survivor. I hired David Cook while I was terrified and trying to protect myself and my 9-year-old child from continued abuse by my ex after our divorce,” she said. “I was a public-school teacher on a teacher’s salary, but I paid Cook $500 an hour because he was recommended by Tim O’Hare as one of the best family-law attorneys in Tarrant County.”
Continue in thread 👇
Wilcox explained that one of the main matters Cook handled was a contempt motion filed by her ex-husband seeking to have her jailed for two and a half years. The motion was set before the same judge who, months earlier, had awarded full custody to her ex-husband and allegedly told Wilcox she “felt like slapping” her.
Wilcox later regained custody through a de novo review and filed a complaint against the judge with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“When my ex refiled contempt to be heard again by that same judge, I was terrified and believed it was retaliation meant to jail me for reporting abuse,” Wilcox said. “I trusted David Cook…who is a sitting state representative and now running for Texas Senate… to protect me.”
Instead, she alleges, her attorney betrayed that trust.
“While I was scared and relying on him as my attorney, he forged my legal documents and committed fraud in my case,” Wilcox said. “Voters deserve to know this. A man who defrauds a domestic-violence survivor facing jail should not be a Texas senator.”
Cook is currently seeking election to Texas Senate District 22 with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit has drawn attention in Tarrant County political circles, as both parties are active candidates—Wilcox for House District 98 and Cook for the Senate—adding a political dimension to what is otherwise a professional liability dispute.
Wilcox has made family court reform, judicial transparency, and accountability central to her campaign platform. She says her own experience has driven her to advocate for changes to protect vulnerable parents and children.
Pictured is full lawsuit PT 1
Wilcox later regained custody through a de novo review and filed a complaint against the judge with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“When my ex refiled contempt to be heard again by that same judge, I was terrified and believed it was retaliation meant to jail me for reporting abuse,” Wilcox said. “I trusted David Cook…who is a sitting state representative and now running for Texas Senate… to protect me.”
Instead, she alleges, her attorney betrayed that trust.
“While I was scared and relying on him as my attorney, he forged my legal documents and committed fraud in my case,” Wilcox said. “Voters deserve to know this. A man who defrauds a domestic-violence survivor facing jail should not be a Texas senator.”
Cook is currently seeking election to Texas Senate District 22 with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit has drawn attention in Tarrant County political circles, as both parties are active candidates—Wilcox for House District 98 and Cook for the Senate—adding a political dimension to what is otherwise a professional liability dispute.
Wilcox has made family court reform, judicial transparency, and accountability central to her campaign platform. She says her own experience has driven her to advocate for changes to protect vulnerable parents and children.
Pictured is full lawsuit PT 1
Lawsuit pt. 2
Senate Candidate David Cook has not only been endorsed by President Trump, but also by numerous other organizations, such as Texas Right to Life, National Rifle Association and the Tarrant County Republican Assembly.
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