A father called his son "a thief and a liar" Wednesday in a civil trial where the disbarred lawyer is suing his offspring for allegedly stealing more than $300,000 of $1.2 million he'd stashed at his Missouri City home before serving a federal prison sentence.

John B. Kennedy, 62, filed suit after his son, Michael F. Kennedy, alerted federal authorities of the money, prompting the IRS to seize more than $800,000 from the father's home.

The elder Kennedy is now seeking $311,000 from his son, whom Fort Bend authorities declined to charge with theft. "He stole more than $300,000 of my money. ... " John Kennedy testified. "He not only stole the money, he made me broke by turning me into the IRS."

The son, 27, said he discovered the money in 2004 while house sitting for his father while he served federal prison time for practicing law without a license in Washington, D.C.

Child support payments

The son said he took between $90,000 and $200,000 of the money to compensate his mother for back child support his father hadn't paid since the couple divorced when Michael Kennedy was 7.

"Me and my five brothers and sisters lived in a two-bedroom house because he failed to pay child support, and he failed to support us," the son testified.

The son ultimately turned over the money he took for his mother to federal authorities.

The son, a graduate of Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law, says he alerted the government after his father filed theft charges in Fort Bend County and wrote letters to the law school's dean. He was served with his father's lawsuit moments after his law school graduation ceremony.

"They had to be aware that this was a future lawyer that was a thief and a liar," John Kennedy said.

IRS seized $850,000

Upon returning to Missouri City after completing his prison sentence in 2005, he found that more than $311,000 was missing. He then alerted authorities before the son contacted the IRS, which seized about $850,000 for back taxes.

"He stuck a knife in my back and impoverished me for the rest of my life," John Kennedy said.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. today in Judge Randy Wilson's courtroom.