Cook County's "penalty box" for judges accused of
misbehavior is getting
crowded.
A sixth Circuit Court judge removed from his courtroom has
been ushered into
the ever-more-popular suite of offices on the Daley Center's
13th floor where
accused judges shuffle paper while awaiting resolution of
the charges against
them.
Call it whatever you want: "The Penalty Box," the "The Sin
Bin," "Camp
Muni,"--it's bursting at the seams.
"It's the most I've ever heard of in modern times--it's a
lot," laughed "Warden"
Jacqueline Cox, presiding judge of Cook County Circuit
Court's First Municipal
Division (hence the "Camp Muni" nickname).
When Judge George J.W. Smith, under federal indictment,
recuperates from
heart surgery and reports back to work, "We may eventually
have to double up,
put another judge in the same office," Cox said.
In the past, judges handling administrative duties while
removed from the
courtroom were jokingly referred to by fellow judges as
being on "The
Sun-Times Call." (No, that's not self-promotion--it was a
reference to those
judges having little to do but twiddle their thumbs and read
the newspaper all
day.)
One Camp Muni judge who, attending a Blackhawks game with a
friend recently,
nodded toward the penalty box and said,"I know how they
feel."
But Cox said the judges' hands are not that idle. The first
municipal division gets
7,000 "pauper's petitions" a year. Those are requests from
people seeking to
have court costs waived because they are too poor.
Those petitions must be approved by a judge and that's the
kind of work these
judges can perform. They also can sign off on satisfactions
and releases on
cases handled in other judges' courtrooms.
"There's always paupers, always satisfactions of
judgment--it's not like there's
nothing to do," Cox said.
They also can preside over marriage court in the City Hall
basement.
Well, all but one of the judges will perform marriages.
Judge Susan McDunn, who is in hot water for refusing to
approve adoptions by
lesbian couples, has religious convictions that tell her
that "only God can
sanction marriages," two other judges said.
Attorneys who defend judges at Camp Muni describe the
paper-shuffling duties
as make-work projects. They'd rather have their clients--who
are supposed to be
considered innocent until proven guilty--stay on the bench.
A judge accused of
mishandling a criminal case could still hear contract
matters and a judge
accused of botching a divorce could still sit in Traffic
Court, they say.
"The real toll [on a judge] is going to work every day with
no meaningful judicial
work to do," one attorney said.
Chief Judge Donald O'Connell disagrees.
"I want to make sure that every citizen appearing in a court
room be confident
that the judge before whom they are appearing has no cloud
over them,"
O'Connell said.
And while the work may not be as satisfying and challenging
as what they
handled before they were pulled from the bench, O'Connell
said, "It's better for
them to be coming into a courthouse on a daily basis doing
whatever Judge Cox
asks them to do than to give them a prolonged vacation
period where they have
nothing to do and continue to collect their salaries."
So, the judges perform the paperwork and talk with each
other about how their
respective cases are progressing. Generally, their cases
progress slowly.
Associate Judge Oliver Spurlock has spent three years in
Camp Muni waiting to
be tried on charges from the Judicial Inquiry Board that he
sexually harassed
female prosecutors and court personnel at Criminal Court.
In addition to Spurlock and McDunn, other judges in Camp
Muni include:
* The aforementioned Smith. A former prosecutor found
"highly qualified" by bar
groups, he was indicted on charges of withdrawing $20,000
from his account in
three small increments to avoid triggering the notice banks
make to the federal
government of withdrawals greater than $10,000. The
indictment did not mention
the charge that sources say Smith's ex-wife made to federal
investigators: The
$20,000 was to bribe a politician to secure Smith's
judgeship.
* Judge Jack Hynes. A highly rated former prosecutor who
helped convict police
officer Gregory Becker in the shooting of Streetwise vendor
Joseph Gould, he is
accused of failing to mention on his application to be a
judge the fact that
appellate courts reversed a few of his convictions because
he failed to offer
sufficient grounds for excusing black jurors.
* Judge Lambros J. Katrubis. He faces charges he falsely
signed a friend's name
to his income tax returns, failed to disqualify himself from
a case involving his
step-daughter, failed to excuse himself from a case
involving a friend, and failed
to disclose background items on his application to be a
judge.
* Judge Adam D. Bourgeois Jr. The most recent guest at Camp
Muni, he is
charged with failing to disclose on his application to be a
judge the fact his
ex-wife had charged him with failing to pay child support.
He also is charged with
failing to disclose other debts.
