Illinois

Illinois Lawyer Charged in Client Referral Fee Scheme

An Illinois attorney and three former state tax auditors have been federally indicted concerning an alleged client referral scheme. Attorney Dean Roupas, 36, who practices in the Chicago suburb of Burbank, has been charged along with the auditors with participating in an arrangement in which Roupas paid $25,500 to have…

Jan 9, 2008 11:42 PM CST

Immigrants Suing to Force Action on Citizenship Apps

After waiting five years, a veteran federal government employee has decided to sue to force movement on his citizenship petition. Rodrigo Alvear has worked as a federal employee, including three years in the Army, for 30 years. The Chicago Tribune (reg. req.) reports Alvear is among hundreds of thousands awaiting…

Jan 4, 2008 5:01 PM CST

Chicago Lawyer Accused of Keying Marine’s Car

A Chicago lawyer has been charged with criminal damage to property for allegedly keying the car of a Marine sergeant who backed up when he missed a turn. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office contends Jay R. Grodner saw vanity plates and a sticker identifying the car’s owner as a…

Jan 3, 2008 1:33 PM CST

Mayer Brown Merges With Hong Kong Firm

In a move that will boost Mayer Brown’s presence in Asia, Mayer Brown announced Friday that is has agreed to merge with Hong Kong’s venerable banking and finance firm Johnson Stokes & Master. The merger is the firm’s most significant expansion since it combined with London’s Rowe & Maw in…

Dec 21, 2007 6:25 PM CST

False Arrest Cost Ill. County Sheriffs $15.5M

Federal jurors in Chicago have awarded $15.5 million to the father of a 3-year-old who was abducted in 2004 from her Will County home and later found sexually assaulted and murdered. Investigators focused the girl’s father and extracted a confession. Kevin Fox stayed in jail for eight months until DNA…

Dec 21, 2007 5:04 PM CST

New Defense Warning: Don’t Brush?

Don’t talk to police. Don’t talk to your cellmate. And, whatever you do, don’t brush your teeth. This could soon be standard advice from criminal defense lawyers to clients, if a recent Illinois evidentiary ruling is any indication. An accused rapist who refused to give a DNA sample has nonetheless…

Dec 18, 2007 5:26 PM CST

Judges Reprimanded for Drunken-Driving Accident

Two Illinois judges have been reprimanded for their involvement in a drunken-driving accident. Jan Fiss and Patrick Young of St. Clair County will be allowed to remain on the bench under the reprimand issued yesterday by the Illinois Courts Commission, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The complaint said Young drank…

Dec 18, 2007 4:12 PM CST

Obama Played ‘Strong, Silent Type’ in Court

Presidential contender Barack Obama, known for his oratorical skills, played the “strong, silent type” when he was practicing law, according to a feature Monday in the Chicago Sun-Times. The paper reviewed cases Obama worked on while he was at Miner Barnhill & Galland and found that other than making introductions,…

Dec 17, 2007 4:47 PM CST

Ex-Chicago Sun-Times Publisher Gets 2 Yrs for Fraud

David Radler is the latest to be sentenced in the criminal case against executives that once headed the Chicago Sun-Times daily news tabloid. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve accepted Radler’s plea this morning and signed off on his reduced sentence of 29 months and a $250,000 fine, the Chicago…

Dec 17, 2007 4:22 PM CST

Disbarred Lawyer Woos Women, Gets Up to $1M—and 5 Years

Law practice didn’t work out for Hillard Quint, who gave up his Georgia license in 1997 to resolve a disciplinary matter. So the enterprising ex-attorney apparently found another way to make a living—scamming women. Reportedly, the seemingly successful business executive may have extracted at least $1 million from women in…

Dec 14, 2007 6:00 PM CST

Serial Killer Studied Law Enforcement to Avoid Detection

A confessed Midwest serial killer avoided detection for decades, apparently utilizing information gleaned from his law enforcement education to do so. Although Timothy Krajcir had begun murdering women by 1977 and spent years of his life in prison for other sex-related crimes, he was only charged this year with some…

Dec 12, 2007 5:43 PM CST

Ex-Hollinger GC Gets Probation

Lost in the news accounts of sentencing yesterday for Conrad Black, the ex-CEO of Hollinger International, was the sentence for the company’s former general counsel. Mark Kipnis, convicted of fraud for helping arrange illegal payments to Black and two co-defendants, received five years’ probation, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog…

Dec 11, 2007 7:18 PM CST

Would Hearsay Rule Bar Pastor’s Drew Peterson Revelation?

A Chicago-area minister says Drew Peterson’s wife blurted out that her husband killed a former wife, raising questions about whether the hearsay rule would permit such testimony in court. Rev. Neil Schori told Greta Van Susteren of Fox TV that Stacy Peterson said her husband Drew killed third wife Kathleen…

Dec 11, 2007 4:04 PM CST

Motor Voter Law a Fast Track to Crime

Proudly proceeding on a fast track toward legal residency and eventual U.S. citizenship, Beth Keathley was so excited about having had a chance to vote in her first American election that she mentioned the milestone to her immigration officer. The next thing she knew, she had been charged with a…

Dec 3, 2007 9:45 PM CST

Michael Grossman’s Favorite Web Sites

See related story: “A Conspiracy of One”

Dec 1, 2007 9:09 PM CST