State’s Atty. Meg Gorecki’s hearing before the state Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission for alleged professional misconduct before her election last year has been continued to Nov. 30. The hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday in Chicago.
The hearing chairman in the case, John Whiton, a lawyer from Freeport, agreed last week to continue the case. He said the continuance would give state Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas time to review and rule on a motion by a special state’s attorney appointed to represent Kane County Sheriff Kenneth Ramsey.
The motion seeks to quash a subpoena that demands the sheriff produce some personnel records related to a deputy sheriff on whose answering machine comments by Gorecki were recorded that are central to the charges against her. The deputy was a friend of Gorecki’s.
The subpoena to produce the records was served on Ramsey by attorneys for Gorecki Sept. 5.
Thomas is expected to review the motion Tuesday, according to commission spokesman James Grogan.
The ARDC filed a complaint against Gorecki in February after a special investigator found that there was not sufficient basis to allege that she did anything criminal in 1998. Gorecki is alleged to have inferred in messages left on the answering machine that a campaign contribution was a quid pro quo for obtaining a job with the county Highway Department.
The messages, which Gorecki eventually admitted were ill-conceived and unfounded, were left on the answering machine several months before her announcement that she would run for county office and did not surface publicly until just before the March 2000 Republican primary.
Any disciplinary action against Gorecki, should the commission find that she committed an ethical breach, would be meted out by the state Supreme Court. Sanctions can range from formal censure to disbarment.
