Controversial lawyer Jorgensen arrested in Miami over son’s disappearance

Bruce Lee Jorgensen, the controversial lawyer who was the original counsel in the class action filed by Betty Johnson against the NMI Retirement Fund and the CNMI government, was arrested by police in Miami, Florida, last week over the disappearance of his 16-year-old son, who was reportedly last seen on Dec. 27, 2015.

According to news reports from Miami, the 58-year-old Jorgensen was arrested for unlawful desertion of a child at Miami Airport after purchasing a one-way ticket to New Zealand.

Sixteen-year-old Aage Jorgensen was reportedly last seen on Dec. 27 when his father allegedly forced him out of his car in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise for being rude or disrespectful.

A footage of CBS Miami’s news showed that Jorgensen was taken for his initial court appearance before Judge Mindy S. Glazer last Jan. 27 (Miami time).

As Jorgensen was questioning his arrest and explaining things, Judge Glazer reminded him not to talk about the case.

According to news reports, police stated that Jorgensen did not report to them about the disappearance of his son and refused to help them in the investigation.

Someone else reportedly notified authorities about the missing teenager.

Although there was no indication of foul play as the teenager had a history of running away from home, police are concerned as days go by with no trace of him.

CBS Miami said Bruce and Aage Jorgensen moved to Plantation in the summer of 2015 so Aage could play tennis there.

CBS reported that Bruce Jorgensen has been paying in cash for most things, including thousands of dollars in rent and private school tuition for his son.

The reports did not mention that Bruce Jorgensen is a lawyer.

In 2014, the CNMI government agreed to settle Jorgensen’s fees and costs in the amount of $800,000 in connection with his representation as counsel for Johnson. The court subsequently approved the deal.

In January 2014, attorney Margery Bronster, a former attorney general of the State of Hawaii who is one of the counsels for Betty Johnson, asked why her co-counsel, Jorgensen, is scared to come to Saipan.

In her declaration, Bronster said Jorgensen, who originated Johnson’s class action, never appeared in person at the hearings and settlement negotiations of the case in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.

“Jorgensen had repeatedly told me that he feared being in Saipan so he would not travel there, but he never explained why,” Bronster said.

Bronster, however, disclosed that Jorgensen suddenly appeared one day in June 2013 on Saipan, but immediately left the island apparently because he had been “spotted.”

At a hearing in February 2014 in federal court, Jorgensen admitted that he is afraid to come to Saipan because of his representation of Johnson and other previous cases as well as personal matters.