Tales of decent souls saved from bullheaded government bureaucracy are the stuff of headlines and hurrahs. Similar sagas of those who aren`t pillars of the community, like convicted drug dealer Rocco Filipponio, don`t get the same attention.
Like the pilgrim seeking a good cup of coffee in those old TV commercials, a search by Filipponio for $14,700 seized from his home by the Drug Enforcement Administration has finally ended.
In 1981, DEA agents raided the Buffalo Grove home of Filipponio and seized $10,000 from a safe in a bedroom closet and another $4,700 from the top of a bedroom bureau.
At the time, the government had two options when it came to keeping seized money. First, if the seizure was $10,000 or less, the government could invoke an administrative forfeiture procedure. In such a procedure, the burden lies on the person seeking his money back to show why he`s entitled to it. If the seizure was more than $10,000, the government had to pursue a judicial path by filing suit in federal court and trying to get a condemnation order. The burden of proof was on the government.
If the government went the administrative route, a person desiring his money back could post a $250 bond and force a federal suit. However, there`s a risk: If the individual loses, he pays all costs and expenses of the proceeding.
In Filipponio`s case, the government characterized the seizure as two separate acts–a seizure of $10,000 and one of $4,700–and invoked the administrative process. Filipponio protested, claiming the seizures were really one and that a forfeiture suit should have been brought, because the $14,700 was over the administrative limit.
He lost that battle and then stewed, waiting two years before filing suit to get back the money. District Judge John Grady dismissed the suit because it was incorrectly filed but gave Filipponio a chance to refile. Grady also noted that, if the government would just go ahead and file a forfeiture suit, everyone would avoid ”expenditure of judicial, governmental and personal resources.” He added his belief that the seizure was one act.
Meanwhile, the government was going through a series of assistant U.S. attorneys on the case. At first, Eileen Marutzky was assigned, then Robert Grueneberg and, finally, Linda Wawzenski.
The government ignored Grady`s prodding, refusing to characterize the action as one seizure, forcing Filipponio to refile his lawsuit. The government stood by its position, despite being given ”one last opportunity” by Grady to support its claim that two searches had occurred.
It persisted that Filipponio should have posted the $250 bond and spurred judicial proceedings, a position Grady had rejected twice. He then rejected it a third time and ordered the government to restore the money and pay attorney`s fees of $4,900 to Filipponio lawyers Charles Locker and Kaaren Plant. In imposing fees, Grady said the government had adhered to ”an untenable position” and engaged in unreasonable conduct.
The judge, whose ever-dour expression verges on that of a wounded hound dog, said: ”The government has never attempted to defend this position with any legal authority. . . . The initial assertion of this position was frivolous. . . . The government has no excuse for its behavior.”
How candidate chose target
Jockeying for the March 18 judicial primary has been intense, with one intriguing question being exactly why did people settle on running for certain vacancies. The rush of folks with Irish-sounding surnames (more than half the 101 candidates) partly reflects 1984 upsets of five sitting judges by folks with Irish names, including then-unknown, 31-year-old Daniel Kelley. But other considerations arise, as exemplified by Democratic appeals court candidate Maureen Kelly, a former nun who has worked since 1978 in the city corporation counsel`s appeals section. In the five appeals races, three slated Democratic judges, William Quinlan, Mary Ann McMorrow and R. Eugene Pincham, face no challengers, while slated Judge Charles Freeman faces three and slated Judge Anthony Scariano faces five. Kelly decided not to run against Quinlan, since he was her former boss and best man at her sister`s wedding. She decided not to run against Freeman, since he`s very tight with Mayor Harold Washington, having sworn him in at his inaugural, and one Freeman challenger, Harold Sullivan, is a buddy of Kelly`s father. She decided not to run against McMorrow, since they sit on the alumni board at Loyola Law School. She won`t run against Pincham, because she greatly admires him and simply think he`s unbeatable. Though she also respects Scariano and can`t get some friends to be on her committee because they like him, she was left with him as a target. Admittedly, that leaves a minor problem, since another Scariano challenger, Francis Mahon, passes the basket with Kelly`s dad on Sundays at St. Francis parish in Wilmette.
Tax bill tailored
to fit newspaper
The folks at a specialty Washington publication, Tax Notes, are kind enough to pass along their discovery of a neatly cryptic, previously undisclosed section of the new House-passed tax bill. The section describes a newspaper whose employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) will be exempted from a variety of new rules. Look at the bill and you`ll find no mention of the paper`s name, but merely a section, 1176 (b), which says that amendments relating to ESOPs won`t apply to ”any daily newspaper which was first published on Dec. 17, 1855, and which began publication under its current name in 1954, and which is published in a constitutional home rule city which has a population of less than 2,500,000.” According to Tax Notes, the ”any daily newspaper” is the Peoria Journal Star, which benefits from the clout of Peoria congressman Robert Michel. The paper is in the process of transferring complete control to its employees by 1993 and feared that Reagan administration-backed ESOP changes could sabotage its goal.
BRIEFS: 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 offseasons until he hangs up his helmet with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. . . . With senior federal appeals judges miffed and some not working, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski wrote the chief appeals judge here, Walter Cummings, to say that restoring the provision that exempted senior judges` pay from the Social Security payroll tax ”is the subject of agreement between the House and Senate conferees” and will be the ”first order of business” in the new session.
The salmonella outbreak at Kaufman`s Delicatessen in Skokie prompted Circuit Judge Thomas O`Brien to order Kaufman and its insurer to stop talking to, and settling cases with, prospective claimants, unless those people were provided a court-approved notice of pending class-action lawsuits. It`s unusual, since a class has yet to be certified, but plaintiffs` lawyers were upset that the insurer had already settled 99 cases and may have shortchanged unsuspecting victims. . . . District Judge George Leighton is taking senior status, creating a vacancy for a federal judge.
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 the Chicago Bar Association`s young lawyers division, the Illinois State Bar Association, the Loyola Street Law Project, the Constitutional Rights Foundation and a coalition of suburban bar groups. The project was supervised by attorney Lee Goodman. . . . Gardner Carton & Douglas plucks J. Anthony Patterson Jr. from Dallas` Johnson & Swanson and opens a branch there. . . . Four partners from Vedder Price Kaufman & Kammholz–Charles Murphy, Arthur Smith, Lee Polk and Michael Duffee–form Murphy Smith & Polk.
Thomas Allen leaves the homicide task force of the public defender`s office and enters private practice. . . . America`s favorite management law firm, Seyfarth Shaw Fairweather & Geraldson, loses an unconventional labor dispute as an arbitrator rules that downstate Lewis and Clark Community College unjustly booted a tenured professor of dentistry after he pled guilty to attempted sexual misconduct with an undercover cop at a public rest area. . . . A libel suit against Robert Seltzner, former editor of south suburban newspapers, published by now-defunct Village Enterprises Inc., is scheduled for trial Thursday before Circuit Judge Benjamin Nelson. Chicago Heights attorney John Cifelli seeks $5.1 million, claiming he was muddied by articles Seltzner wrote alleging Cifelli conflicts of interest resulting from a cozy relationship with Robert Grossi, now Bloom Township supervisor and then a trustee.
The law license of Chief U.S. District Judge Harold Baker in Danville has been restored to the list of active lawyers by the Illinois Supreme Court. He went inactive when sworn in as a judge 7 1/2 years ago and says his action is taken ”for no earth-shattering reason. I just thought I should be active if I`m going to be a judge.” . . . 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. . . . Two sides in a case were so taken aback by the lack of
understanding of one of the newest federal judges that they decided not to take chances and settled the case.
