The Difficult Task for the Blagojevich Jurors

Eric Zorn is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He also writes the Change of Subject blog for the Tribune. His columns often cover the courts and the legal system.   Of course, he has followed the Blago saga from day one.  He wrote a column this week titled "Inside Blago's Mind - Hypothetically."  His point was that Blago held up surprisingly well during cross-examination because he didn't lose his temper, make any damning admissions, or collapse into a stammering mess on the stand. 

To illustrate Blago's craftiness on the stand, Zorn wrote a hypothetical cross-exam scene between a prosecutor and driver on trial for offering a bribe to a police officer during a speeding stop.  It is brilliant.  I have pasted the entire exchange below.  Zorn wanted to let the reader into Blago's mind by comparing his evasiveness on the stand to that of a hypothetical defendant.  In the hypothetical case, video and audio surveillance show that when the officer approached, the driver held his driver's license out the window wrapped in a $100 bill while saying, "How can we take care of this?" 

The comparison to Blago is obvious once you read the testimony.  Both defendants have the ability to answer only what they want, not the specific question that was asked.  However, instead of thinking about Blago when I read this exchange, I was thinking about the prosecution and the jury. Even if this alleged bribe is on video, has the bribe been proved beyond a reasonable doubt after hearing the defendant's explanation?  Most people will still say yes, but, it only takes one hold-out juror to hang the jury.  It's almost no use cross-examining a defendant who is this slippery.  I think the prosecution's case was weakened in the following hypothetical.  You be the judge:

Prosecutor: Were you suggesting that you wanted the officer to give you a pass in exchange for $100?

Driver: I never said those words, no.

Prosecutor: I didn't ask if you said those words, I asked if it was your intent to convey the idea that if you gave the officer $100, he would not write you a ticket.

Driver: That wasn't my intent, no.

Prosecutor: Why did you offer him $100?

Driver: I'm a big supporter of first responders. I didn't say it, but my thinking at the time was that he would give the money to the Police Athletic League.

Prosecutor: What did you mean when you said, "How can we take care of this?"

Driver: By "this" I meant the youth-sports programs sponsored by the PAL, which I've always felt the charitable public, or "we," should "take care" of, funding-wise. I was talking shorthand.

Prosecutor: Well, you didn't want the officer to write you a speeding ticket, did you?

Driver: No, of course not. But that desire was in no way linked to my $100 donation to the PAL. Those were two separate conversations in my mind.

Prosecutor: Then why did you hand him the $100 bill wrapped in your driver's license?

Driver: I didn't hand it to him. I held it out to him, but he never touched it. In fact, I hadn't made up my mind that I was going to give him the $100 charitable donation. I was still in the gathering options phase, thinking about what I wanted to do. I might have pulled the money back at the last minute, then waited until I got home to write a check to the PAL. As I sit here today I can't tell you for sure what I would have done if he hadn't then arrested me for attempted bribery.

Prosecutor: The money was in no way linked to your desire not to get a speeding ticket?

Driver: No, I'm very scrupulous. I won't cross any lines. I wanted to be sure the transaction was legal, and I trusted that an officer of the law would never mix a conversation about a speeding ticket with a conversation about a possible charitable donation.

Of course he's lying, but if he somehow sounded believable and didn't come across as a total creep, this driver might not be convicted by a jury.  Just as I believe that Blago might not be convicted by this jury in Chicago.

Massive debt collection firm closes its doors

Mann Bracken, one of the country's largest debt collection firms, suddenly went out of business this week. They were based out of Maryland, but had 24 offices across the country. On Thursday, a Maryland judge dismissed tens of thousands cases handled by the firm. They also have cases in every other county in Maryland and many more cases pending across the country.

The firm blamed its failure on the bankruptcy filing of a company that handled its support services. That is amazing. Didn't that bankrupt company have any competitors that could have picked up the slack for this firm? More details here.

My Rendition of a Career as an Attorney

How about some art on this blog? Bored one night studying for Constitutional Law, I decided to take a picture of this small lamp with my iPhone. Recently I gave it a symbolic twist and submitted it to win a scholarship...fingers are crossed! Enjoy!

Illinois Vehicle Window Tint Law

EDITOR'S NOTE: I spoke to Representative Bossi's office. Please see the comment section for a quick update on the status of this bill.



Illinois is potentially changing one of its most disfavored laws among motorist. It deals with window film, more commonly referred to as window tint. As it stands, drivers are not allowed to have any non-reflective or reflective tint film on the windows directly adjacent to each side of the driver, however if the new law takes force it will allow motorists to have window tint on the front drivers and front passengers windows which allows a 50% light transmittance.

The new notion rests in simple fact that drivers or passengers of motor vehicles should be able to protect themselves from skin cancer, while at the same time to protecting the environment from the harmful emissions created by the excessive and unnecessary use of vehicle air-conditioning systems.

Many states currently have similar rules regarding vehicle window tint, and it seems Illinois won’t be far behind. As of April 2nd, 2009 the Illinois House unanimously passed the bill in favor of the change. Currently the bill sits in the Illinois Senate after being given the “OK” by the Transportation committee.

Want to stay up to date? Check out the bill status at the Illinois General Assembly website:
Illinois General Assembly Vehicle Tinted Window Film Bill Status

Man gets DUI for driving his motorized wheelchair...on the interstate.

What else can I say?

Full article here.

Illinois Courts ....on Twitter?

It seems, everyone has some type of social networking or communication web page now days. Well leave it to the Illinois courts to keep up with the trends. Below is the link to the official Illinois Courts Twitter Page, where you can find out about new opinions, programs, and more.

http://twitter.com/illinoiscourts

Disobeying Evictions?

The New York Times reports that a broad civil disobedience campaign is growing among homeowners, community leaders, and some politicians throughout the Upper Northeast to support families in their attempts to refuse court orders to vacate their homes following sheriffs' sales.

Organizers have been creating vast networks via text messages, web sites, and phone trees to alert neighboring homeowners, and the media, when an eviction has been scheduled and when deputies are on the way. Volunteers will summon friends and relatives to converge at the site to occupy the house in an attempt to block the eviction. People have already started to attach themselves to their porches to attract attention. A central theme in these protests seems to be a willingness to be arrested. Some police departments are arresting people and some are not.

The Times links to the websites of several of these organizations. They appear organized and very well funded. Over the past several weekends, these campaigns have drawn nearly 500 participants to separate protests in New York and four other cities. Certain people speculate that the number of volunteers will reach into the tens of thousands within weeks. Sit-ins are scheduled in upcoming weeks for New York, Los Angeles, and more than twenty other cities across the country hardest hit by foreclosures.

This movement can't be good for the economy at large. If banks cannot repossess their collateral, how are they supposed to survive. We can't continue to bail out the banks forever. Eventually they will have to start making their own money in order for the economy to rebound.

County sheriffs need to get creative in thier attempts to combat this civil disobedience movement. They can't arrest everybody, but they can't arrest nobody either, like the Sheriff of Cook County did (or did not do) in a recent publicity stunt. It is not up to local sheriffs to decide which court orders to obey and which ones to disobey.

Maybe the banks should dispatch hundreds of volunteers out to these people's doors on the first of every month to demand mortgage payments.

NIU-COL Student Appointed to Illinois Senate

Toi Hutchinson, a student at the Northern Illinois University College of Law, was unanimously appointed by Illinois Democratic Party officials to serve as the Illinois State Senator of the 40th Congressional District. The Illinois State Senate seat was vacated by Debbie Halvorson after she successfully ran for the United States Congress.

Hutchinson, of Olympia Fields, Ill., was previously Halvorson’s chief of staff and the Olympia Fields village clerk. Hutchinson also worked for United Way as its executive director in South Cook County and was soon promoted to chief professional officer in its Southwest Suburban office. At that time, she was the youngest chief professional officer and the only African-American director in the State of Illinois. Most recently, Hutchinson was a lobbyist in Springfield for the Chicago law firm of Vincent R. Williams & Associates, P.C.

Hutchinson received her B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She also is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Management Program. Hutchinson will be sworn into the Illinois State Senate on January 14, 2009 in Springfield.

iPhone application helps DUI offenders find lawyers

I have blogged about Avvo before. They are the lawyer rating service that previously petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court for the master roll of all licensed attorneys in this state, and lost.

Well, they are back in the news. They have developed an application for the iphone which allows you to log each drink that you consume over a given time period. It then calculates your approximate BAC based on gender, weight, etc. Then, if you exceed the legal limit, it will suggest cab companies or other alternative means of transportation. Then, if you get pulled over for DUI, it will suggest a DUI lawyer in your area.

Check out the full article here.

Judge hits police car, gets DUI

The criminal courts judge from Hartford, Connecticut requested a transfer to the civil division following her arrest for DUI.

Click here for full details.

Man intentionally passes gas in face of police officer, gets charged with battery.

First, let me apologize for the subject matter of my last two posts, but the intersection of bodily functions and the law has become quite crowded recently.

Yesterday, it was reported that a West Virginia man was pulled over and arrested for DUI. While at the police station having his fingerprints taken, the man "moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him." The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong. The man is now charged with battery on a police officer, as well as DUI and obstruction. Click here for full details.

I started to wonder whether that would actually be a battery in Illinois.

In Illinois, a person commits battery if he intentionally or knowingly without legal justification and by any means, (1) causes bodily harm to an individual or (2) makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an individual. 720 ILCS 5/12-3 (a).

I haven't read the annotations, but I doubt that passing gas equals physical contact.

I think the officer would have a better chance filing a civil suit for battery.

According to the Restatement of Torts 2d, an actor is subject to liability to another for battery if (a) he acts intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact with the person of another or a third person, or an imminent apprehension of such a contact, and (b) an offensive contact with the person of the other directly or indirectly results.

I think the cop has a case for the tort of battery. Now the question becomes how much are his damages. I would love to be on that jury.

Can Binge Drinking Save Social Security?

Now that I have your attention, I am going to reprint a post (with the same name as this post) from the Freakonomics Blog in its entirety:

"A coalition of college presidents has been pushing states to lower the drinking age as a way to discourage problem drinking on campuses. But here’s one unintended consequence of teaching young people responsible drinking habits: it could make Social Security bankrupt faster.

A 2004 study by Frank Sloan and Jan Ostermann at Duke University found that heavy drinkers contribute slightly more to Social Security, through their higher average lifetime earnings, than nondrinkers do. What’s more, since alcohol abusers tend to die sooner than moderate or nondrinkers, they draw less money, over time, from the Social Security trust fund.

Their conclusion: the elimination of heavy drinking (three or more drinks a day) from each successive group of American 25-year-olds would cost the Social Security trust fund $3 billion over the cohort’s lifetime.

According to the authors:

From the vantage point of society as a whole, heavy drinking redistributes wealth from heavy drinkers to others. Thus, if public health programs were to succeed in reducing the rate of heavy drinking, [Social Security’s] future financial status would be even worse than has been projected.

The study drives home the health cost of irresponsible drinking, but with a twist: in this case, binge drinking can have positive externalities.

On another note, one of the puzzling underlying findings in this paper is the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and increased lifetime earnings. For men and women alike, people who report downing two or fewer drinks a day earn slightly more than teetotalers do, on average. Heavy alcohol use tends to negatively impact earnings, as you might imagine, but not as much as abstinence. Sloan and Ostermann aren’t clear on the mechanics of this relationship, but the science seems solid."

Interesting analysis.

I wonder why they went bankrupt.

I was just reading an interesting piece on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog which speculates that the trustee in Lehman Brothers' historic Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing could could possibly attack the bonuses handed out to Lehman executives over the last year on the ground that they were fraudulent transfers made by an ailing company.

The article reports that Lehman paid about $5.7 billion in executive bonuses last year. The article also states that the bonuses are typically 60% of compensation. After brushing off my high school algebra textbook, I figured that the estimated annual salary in 2007 of Lehman executives was approximately $9.5 billion (I hope that's right). I have absolutely no idea how many "executives" there are at Lehman, but could they even have 500? I have no idea. Reuters states that they had 28,600 total employees worldwide. 500 executives sounds about right. Assuming 500 executives, that means that they each earned approximately $19,000,000 last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's some major coin. What could they have done to be worth so much money to that company? Probably nothing. You know they just basically took a percentage of everything that came into the company. Maybe if the "executives" hadn't been so greedy, they could have kept drawing more moderate salaries for many years to come. Instead, as soon as they had a bad year, they had to start typing up their resumes.

Affair with former client's wife costs attorney $1.5 million

From Law.com:

A Mississippi attorney must pay $1.5 million for having an affair with a former client's wife.

Affirming a jury verdict in Rankin County Circuit Court, the Supreme Court of Mississippi found Ronald Henry Pierce liable to his former client, Ernest Allan Cook, who, along with his wife Kathleen Shorkey Cook, had hired Pierce to represent them and their son in a medical malpractice action. The appellate court found Pierce, a solo practitioner, liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and alienation of affection.

Pierce began having an affair with Kathleen Cook in September 2000 after her husband had moved to California to pursue a film career. Ernest Cook discovered the affair and hired a private investigator. The Cooks terminated Pierce as their attorney in the medical malpractice action in December 2000 and were divorced in June 2002 on the grounds of Kathleen Cook's uncondoned adultery. Ernest Cook then filed a lawsuit against Pierce.

In June 2006, a jury granted Ernest Cook $300,000 for alienation of affection, $200,000 for breach of contract and $1 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Mississippi Supreme Court on Aug. 14 rejected Pierce's argument that the statute of limitations had expired on the alienation and emotional distress claims and his argument that the breach of contract claim was actually a legal malpractice claim requiring an expert witness.

Reached by phone, Pierce said he expected an unfavorable outcome because the Supreme Court had denied his bid to present oral argument on appeal. "I knew I was going to get screwed," he said.

Pierce said that he planned to file a motion to reconsider.

Felony conviction overturned because prosecutor's law license was suspended

The Aurora Beacon Newspaper reports that a felony conviction out of Kendall County has been overturned by the 2nd District because one of the Assistant State's Attorneys who tried the case had had her license temporarily suspended for failing to answer the question on the renewal form asking whether or not she maintained malpractice insurance.

The article states that the defendant's lawyer was simply checking how to spell the prosecutor's name on the ARDC website for purposes of the appellate brief when he discovered that the prosecutor's license was suspended six days before his client's trial. That had to be a good feeling. I bet the brief sure took a different tone after that discovery.

I know the ASA involved in that case. She was actually decent to work with, which I cannot say for the majority of prosecutors that I come across in my practice. She no longer works for Kendall County, but now works in the Kane County State's Attorney's office. Her license was only suspended for ten days. It just so happens that during that period of time she tried a felony case that she won and that the defendant decided to appeal. That was unfortunate for her, but like I said, that must have been a good feeling for the defense lawyer when he first made his discovery.

BREAKING NEWS: The Big Ten Network is coming to Comcast

The two media powerhouses have finally inked a long-term agreement which will give the Big Ten Network its own channel on Comcast cable. Under the terms of the agreement, Comcast will initially launch the Network as part of its expanded basic level of service starting on August 15th, well before football season. The way I read the press release, this means that it will not be an upgrade, but rather available to all basic cable subscribers.

A tip of the hat to my dad for pointing this one out. It will be much easier for me and him to discuss basketball games next season now that I will actually be able to watch the games.

Why can't we get Wisconsin law licenses without taking their bar like Wisconsin law students do?

From the National Law Journal:

A Wisconsin federal judge has granted class status to a group of law school graduates who have earned law degrees outside that state and want the same right as Wisconsin law school graduates to practice in the state before passing a bar exam. However, shortly after granting class status, the Judge also dismissed the case on other grounds.

Christopher Wiesmueller, a graduate of Oklahoma City University School of Law who served as the original plaintiff as well as the lawyer on the case, said in an interview that he will appeal the dismissal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Wiesmueller sued on the basis that a rule allowing only graduates of Wisconsin's two law schools to practice law before passing the bar exam was a violation of the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause.

I know at least one of our Law Blog colleagues is licensed in Wisconsin. He, of course, is probably rooting against this lawsuit as it will maintain the exclusivity of his dual licensure. I, on the other hand, am rooting for this lawsuit so that I can add an asterisk to my name on the letterhead without taking another bar exam.

Full article here.

Lawyer rating service seeks names of all licensed lawyers in Illinois

Avvo Inc., a company that provides an online ratings directory of U.S. lawyers, has petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court to obtain an electronic list of the attorneys licensed to practice in Illinois from the ARDC. The company noted that the information was already made public on the ARDC's own Web site, just not in a form that's usable by Avvo. The ARDC said providing the list would fly in the face of long-standing policy. In an April letter to Avvo, ARDC lawyers said that outside its Web site the list is only provided to state and local bar associations, officers of the court and continuing legal education organizations.

I have been to the Avvo website. They claim to have most Illinois lawyers in their database already. They just want to fill in the holes with the master list from the ARDC. I went there and found my own listing. It was very generic. I think it just basically listed the date of my admission and my contact information. I actually created a free account so that I could customize my profile. The website allows clients to go on there and "rate" the lawyers. I seriously doubt any of my clients have ever heard of that website, but I still thought it was worth it to create an account so that I could control what my clients see if they ever come across the site.

Time to look for a new advertising agency

Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock, an identity theft protection service, gave out his complete social security number in radio, television, and print ads, and on his website LifeLock.com. I remember hearing the radio ads. I can't remember exactly what the guy says, but he basically guarantees that his company's service will not fail right before he gives out his complete social security number on the air.

Eighty-seven people tried to steal this guy's identity and at least one of them was successful. Once this news became public, Mr. Davis and his company were sued in three different states on the theory that he should have known his services were not foolproof because his own identity was stolen.

Doh!!