Loose Lips

A former Cook County Circuit Court Judge has been charged with an ethics violation by the Illinois Administrator for comments he made when he thought he was not being live-streamed after a hearing where counsel had participated remotely

Respondent, mistakenly believing that the virtual feed of his courtroom had ended, then engaged in a conversation with the Assistant State’s Attorneys and Assistant Public Defenders physically present in his courtroom about the just concluded Myles matter, and, specifically, about Mr. Myles’s attorneys, Ms. Bonjean and Mr. Kennedy. During that conversation, Respondent, referring to Ms. Bonjean, stated: “Did you see her going nuts? Glasses off, fingers through her hair, the phone’s going all over the place. It’s insane.” Respondent further stated that Ms. Bonjean’s behavior “was entertaining” for him and inquired: “Can you imagine waking up to her every day? Oh my God.” Respondent further stated, “You know what? I couldn’t have a visual on that if you paid me. There you have it.”

During the conversation described...above, Respondent also mocked and ridiculed Attorney Sam Kennedy. When a question was raised regarding who Attorney Sam Kennedy was, Respondent stated, “That’s her [Ms. Bonjean’s] man child.”

Ms. Bonjean learned of Respondent’s comments...later in the day on January 11th. Ms. Bonjean then filed a motion to preserve the livestream recording of Respondent’s courtroom from January 11, 2022. On January 13, 2022, after Ms. Bonjean filed the motion, the presiding judge of the 5th District of the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Hon. Erica Reddick, reassigned Mr. Myles’s matter to the Hon. Carol Howard.

On January 17, 2022, in connection with the allegations above, the Judicial Inquiry Board charged Respondent in case number 22 CC 2 with conduct that was prejudicial to the administration of justice and that brought the judicial office into disrepute, in violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct, Illinois Supreme Court Rule 61, Canon 1; Rule 62, Canon 2(A), and Canon 3(A)(2), (A)(3), and (A)(9).

On January 18, 2022, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County placed Respondent on restrictive duties. On November 6, 2022, Respondent resigned from his position as a judge. On December 2, 2022, Illinois Courts Commission dismissed the pending case against Respondent, finding that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter as Respondent was no longer a sitting judge.

The disparaged attorney has had an interesting career as reflected on her web page biography

After college, Bonjean attended the Manhattan School of Music where she earned a Master’s Degree in Music in Opera Performance.

After the switch to law

Since 2014, Bonjean has successfully overturned the convictions of no fewer than thirteen individuals wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit. Bonjean has also successfully tried or settled 1983 civil rights cases totaling over $20 million dollars.

Specifically, in 2017, Bonjean obtained the largest settlement for a civil rights case in the state of New Jersey in the case of Castellani v. City of Atlantic City, et. al., 13 CV 6667, a police brutality, malicious prosecution and Due Process case with a Monell claim. The case was settled at $3,000,000.

In 2019, a jury awarded $5.2 million to Plaintiff Stanley Wrice in the matter of Wrice v. Byrne, et. al., 14 CV 5934 after they found that he was beaten into confessing to a brutal rape by Area Two Detectives. Mr. Wrice spent 31 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Bonjean represented Bill Cosby on his appeal before the Pennslyvania Supreme Court. In June 2021, Mr. Cosby’s conviction was overturned when the Court found that Mr. Cosby’s due process rights were violated when a non-prosecution agreement with a previous prosecutor meant that Mr. Cosby should not have been charged in the first place.

Additionally, in September 2021, BLG client Armando Serrano and his co-Plaintiff Jose Montanez received a $20.5 million settlement after serving 23 years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit after being framed by a former Chicago police detective.

Respondent is charged with engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in violation of Illinois RPC 8.4(d). (Mike Frisch)