Blogging Assistant PD Gets 60-Day Suspension for Posts on Little-Disguised Clients
A former Illinois assistant public defender will be suspended for 60 days for disclosing too much information on her blog.
Kristine Ann Peshek revealed client protected information on the blog and made false statements to a tribunal about a client’s drug usage, according to a summary posted at Illinois Lawyer Now. The Legal Profession Blog also reported on the suspension.
Peshek referred to her clients by either their first names, a derivative of their first names, or by their jail identification numbers, but it was still possible to identify them, according to the disciplinary complaint. One blog post revealed that Peshek failed to inform a judge about a client’s misstatement about methadone use. In other posts Peshek complained that one judge was clueless and another was an —hole.
Peshek was an assistant public defender in Winnebago County, which includes Rockford. Her blog was called The Bardd Before the Bar—Irreverant Adventures in Life, Law, and Indigent Defense.