We appreciate Maurice Possley’s March 1report on 16 possible instances of prosecutors who, when they applied to be associate judges in the Circuit Court of Cook County, failed to disclose appellate decisions criticizing their conduct at trial (as required by the Supreme Court’s questionnaire). The failures of candor revealed in the story signify not just isolated ethical lapses, which are serious enough, but a contamination of the entire process of filling local judicial offices.
Who can know today whether more honest candidates might have ascended to the bench if the lawyers named in the story had been upfront about their professional pasts?
The article exposes several faults in the system of appointing judges in Illinois, which overall warrants scrutiny and reform.
We place the blame, foremost, on any judicial candidate who failed to exercise due care (or who flat-out lied) in answering the questionnaire. And we do not confine our disapproval solely to the assistant state’s attorneys who were the subject of the Tribune story. Second, the investigation of judicial candidates must be more in-depth. We now depend far too much on the good faith of the candidates themselves. The local bar associations must take some responsibility for failing to ferret out the information discovered by the Tribune during their own investigations. But unless a law-enforcement approach is taken to these nominations, with real and well-financed investigations, candidate dishonesty may continue to go undetected.
Third, the Circuit Court of Cook County must discharge its own responsibility to safeguard the associate appointment process. Judicial Canon 3(B)(3) requires that “[a] judge having knowledge of a violation of these canons on the part of a judge or a violation of Rule 8.4 of the Rules of Professional Conduct on the part of a lawyer shall take or initiate appropriate disciplinary measures.” (Rule 8.4 covers all attorney misconduct, include filing false statements with a court.) Chief Judge Donald P. O’Connell of the Circuit Court has not only the authority but the affirmative mandate to report violators to appropriate disciplinary commissions, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and the Judicial Inquiry Board. We commend him to do so.
