The parents of a son and daughter are suing New Trier East High School, alleging it withheld knowledge that the couple`s kids were having sex with one another. But don`t waste your time looking for the court file.
That`s because the couple`s attorney convinced Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rakowksi to immediately impound the file. A Tribune reporter found out by accident about a suit that seeks $700,000 in damages. He thus not only confronted what could be an intriguing confidentiality question–was a school social worker obligated to reveal a child`s disclosures to the parents?–but also the murky world of lawsuits getting hidden from public view.
”I`m prepared to have the head of whoever violated that order and told you about this case!” said an initially disgruntled Richard Kates, Chicago attorney for the parents.
”I had this sealed because there`s a minor involved and it`s the only case I`ve ever sealed. I think there are limits to what the public should know.”
One can surely understand keeping the kids` and parents` identities under wraps. But why should the public not know that a public body like the school district had been hit with some very serious charges, especially if those charges prove true?
”It`s the first impoundment I`ve been involved with in 24 years,” said Robert Claus, attorney for the school district. He did not participate in the decision to impound the file and said he didn`t necesarily fully agree with the notion of sealing it. ”But I could well see why the plaintiff in this case would want it.”
P.A. Sorrentino, presiding judge of the law division where Rakowski sits, admitted there are no guidelines on impounding. A judge`s discretion rules.
”I don`t know of any guidelines. I suppose a judge can impound a file anytime he wants to. I don`t think I`ve ever impounded a file and I`ve been a judge since 1962.”
But why protect the school district? ”That`s a hard question,” said Sorrentino. ”I`m sure the judge could communicate something to the law enforcement authorities if he thought it was necessary.”
Generally, files are sealed in juvenile, adoption and mental health proceedings, while one also comes across parts of files, like psychiatric statements, sealed in various courts. Several dozen divorces cases are impounded yearly and, many suggest, such sealing is often a function of judges caving in to the rich and famous who don`t want their finances known. In federal court, protective orders often are used to keep business records private.
Several lawyers mentioned a variety of proceedings, like divorce cases, and asked, ”What`s the public`s right to know?” The implication was that the only interest served in disclosure is that of headline-hunting media.
It was why the thoughts of Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy seemed notable. A defender of victimized and disenfranchised souls, he handles many cases that involve intimate details of people`s lives.
”I`ve concluded that, more often than not, secrecy really protects the bureaucrats rather than the people involved, especially in juvenile and mental health cases. In most instances, there`s no real reason to impound because, remember, suits can be filed openly on behalf of `John Doe` and thus protect identities. My office does that all the time.”
Informed about the New Trier case, Murphy said he didn`t understand why it couldn`t have been filed as a John Doe suit. The judge, he said, could then make sure that all subsequent filings were open to the public but did not include the names of the kids and plaintiff.
”Lawsuits are not supposed to be held in secret. Even in juvenile proceedings, I tend to be for open proceedings. I believe that the more light you bring on any system, the better you are and the cleaner the system will be.”
This is a pauper?
How was it that Skokie pharmacist Morton Goldsmith, the dear fellow enamored of hawking heroin substitutes who was convicted of masterminding the $20 million Medicaid fraud, ended up with a free, court-appointed lawyer for his just-ended trial?
It seems that Goldsmith, who the government believes earned $14 million from the fraud, stood before District Judge John Grady last year and pleaded pauper status. Grady assented and appointed John Theis from the federal defender`s office so as not to delay the 11-defendant case, which eventually took nearly 12 weeks.
As you may recall, Goldsmith was initially let out on bond after his conviction last week but then nabbed and thrown in prison as he tried to take $264,000 out of three bank accounts nobody had known about. Well, Theis indicates that his bill should be around $18,000. That`s dirt cheap for a case of this magnitude and results from the austere government rate of $60 an hour for in-court time and $40 for work done outside.
It`s expected that prosecutors David Stetler, Daniel Purdom and Michael Shepard will seek reimbursement from Goldsmith for Theis` fees. For now, Theis is still the court-appointed lawyer and it`s up to either Grady or the appeals court as to whether he remains. There`s also the chance of a perjury prosecution against Goldsmith.
Meanwhile, the government expects to go after fees from another convicted defendant, Bobby Peterson, who also was represented by an attorney from the federal defender program. It did not go unnoticed that Peterson drove a $51,000 Rolls Royce to court each day.
`Frivolous` appeal
costs lawyer $250
It was a taxing week for Wheaton attorney Robert Lee Collins. The U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the income tax evasion conviction of his client, David Chapman, and then ordered Collins to pay a $250 fine for filing a
”frivolous” appeal. Chief Judge Walter Cummings, joined by John Coffey and Kenneth Ripple, issued an unpublished order that affirmed the conviction and took Collins to task for raising arguments ”absolutely foreclosed by previous decisions of this court.” The judges added that there was no indication that Collins raised these claims for any purpose other than ”delay or harassment or out of sheer obstinacy.”
Trying times
for waste firm
Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook is down in the dumps because of a dispute with its insurance company over payment of both an $11.5 million settlement of a class action stockholders` lawsuit and a $1.5 million legal fee. News of late has not been cheery for Waste Management. It was disclosed that its City Council lobbyist, Raymond Akers Jr., played a key role in the introduction of aldermen to Michael Raymond, the FBI mole in the sting investigation of city bill collection contracts. Last September, while Akers was introducing Raymond to aldermen as his ”uncle,” Waste Management was turning to Federal Insurance Co. for reimbursement of its settlement payout and the fees due Bell, Boyd & Lloyd. Federal said it never agreed to foot such bills, so Waste Management has filed suit.
BRIEFS: John Simon, a big moneymaker at embattled Friedman & Koven and son of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Seymour Simon, splits for Jenner & Block. Colleague Russ Strobel goes along with him as the resumes continue to fly out of Friedman & Koven. . . . Tom Clements, quarterback for Notre Dame`s 1973 national champions who continues to play in the Canadian Football League, will finish Notre Dame Law School and join Bell, Boyd & Lloyd later this year, intending to toil there in the football off-seasons until he hangs up his helmet with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. . . . Divorce specialist Marshall Auerbach enlists the City Council majority`s favorite lawyer, William Harte, to represent him in a spat with former client June Barry over a contested $250,000 Auerbach fee.
The American Bar Association awarded first place in its 1985 Law Day-U.S.A. public service competition to Illinois Law Test, a joint project of Chicago Bar Association`s young lawyers division, Illinois State Bar Association, Loyola Street Law Project, Constitutional Rights Foundation and a coalition of suburban bar groups. The project was supervised by attorney Lee Goodman. . . . Edward Hegarty, the FBI chief here, garnered little-deserved publicity after the big mob convictions in Kansas City. A journalistic courtesan elsewhere wrote that the ”trial ended an eight-year investigation by FBI agents under” Hegarty. In fact, the key wiretaps in the case were made long before he arrived here in March, 1982, and as much credit that is due rank-and-file Chicago agents, even more is probably due those in Kansas City, with kudos also merited by the federal strike force and FBI in Chicago, Milwaukee, Las Vegas and Cleveland. . . . Gardner Carton & Douglas plucks J. Anthony Patterson Jr. from Dallas` Johnson & Swanson and opens a branch there. . . . District Judge George Leighton will take senior status next month, creating a vacancy for a federal judge.
