Judge who let law clerk rule on cases has Alzheimer's diagnosis, is unable to do job, complaint says
A judge in suburban Chicago who allowed a law clerk to wear her robe and rule on traffic cases is mentally unable to handle her judicial duties, according to a complaint filed with the Illinois Courts Commission.
The complaint by the Judicial Inquiry Board said Judge Valarie Turner was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and has memory loss, report the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Turner was removed from the bench and reassigned to administrative duties after the August incident in which she was accused of letting law clerk/staff attorney Rhonda Crawford rule on cases in a “job shadowing” exercise. Turner has said she believed Crawford was indeed a judge. Turner took a medical leave after her reassignment.
Crawford won a judicial election even though she has been charged with official misconduct and false impersonation. Her license has been suspended and she has been barred from assuming the bench.
Turner’s lawyer, Gino DiVito, said in a statement that the matter could have been handled by the judicial retirement system, and that there was no need to ask the courts commission to take action. Turner is applying for disability status, he said.
“Valarie Turner has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease,” DiVito said in the statement published by the Tribune. “Ms. Turner is charged with no misconduct. She therefore has done nothing that would justify any sanction that could be imposed by the commission. In essence, the Judicial Inquiry Board has charged her only with having Alzheimer’s disease.”
The complaint “sets a terrible precedent for any judge who, like Ms. Turner, has an illness that she did not cause and cannot control,” DiVito said.
Turner was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1991. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, a former federal prosecutor, and a former associate at Kirkland & Ellis, according to this Chicago Tribune article. She became a judge in 2002.
