HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A lawsuit is bringing up questions about money and the role of self-described community activist Quanell X.

Lawyers say he's been paid for publicizing a controversial case A receipt of the money was part of papers filed in a new lawsuit by two brothers who successfully sued the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

Erik and Sean Ibarra are suing attorney Lloyd Kelley claiming breach of contract. Earlier this year, Kelley helped them win a large cash settlement. The Ibarra's claim Kelley overcharged them.

The paperwork included documentation that Quanell X was paid a $20,000 consultation fee for that original case.

Both he and we have been calling Quanell X a community activist for years, but is he only that? Or does a new lawsuit blur the line?

He has been on the front lines of some of the city's most high profile cases, fighting injustice, racism and even getting accused murderers to open up. But there may be more to Quanell X than meets the eye. A lawsuit sheds new light on some of Quanell X's activities.

In a lawsuit filed this week, the defendants, Erik and Sean Ibarra opened the door. It alleges their former attorney, Lloyd Kelley, whom they are now suing, expensed $20,000 for Quanell. The reason is consultation fees. In an interview Kelley told us that covered a number of Quanell's services including organizing this protest rally outside the Harris County Jail, consulting on the trial but most importantly drumming up publicity.

"You think $20,000 is some excessive profit for a guy that sat there in the trials and has the courtroom packed with people so that this was not going to go under the radar screen which is what the county hoped," Kelley asked.

So what does that make Quanell X?

"It is not what I call a community activist," said Professor Garth Jowett of the University of Houston school of communications. "A community activist would do that and not receive a private fee."

I asked Jowett what a person is called who gets paid to draw media attention.

"That would be a publicity of press agent," Jowett replied.

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