Kenneth J. Wadas has been reversed 25 times in 6 years — more than any other Cook County criminal court judge on the November ballot running to remain in office.
Cook County judges Margaret Ann Brennan, Patrick J. Sherlock, Kenneth J. Wadas and Anna Helen Demacopoulos have had rulings reversed on appeal more than 3 times as often as their colleagues.
When respected law professor Albert Alschuler said renowned federal appeals court judge Frank Easterbrook engaged in “eight whoppers” in a high-profile case, Injustice Watch undertook a review of the judge’s other cases. The result: A pattern of misrepresenting facts: Misstatements, omissions and wrong assumptions.
It commonly takes years to act against judges who violate the Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct, and the punishment seldom is more than a public reprimand, Injustice Watch’s first investigation found.
As judicial misconduct investigations drag on, judges in limbo outside courtrooms — with pay.
Kurt P. Klein of DeKalb County became an associate judge in 1995, and was appointed to an open circuit judge seat in 2001. He won election for a full term the following year, and retired from the bench in 2012.
Francis X. Golniewicz III first was appointed by the State Supreme Court to a vacant seat in 1991, and then won election three years later as a circuit judge from the 10th sub-circuit encompassing Chicago’s northwest side.
Perrin is an associate judge for Sangamon County . He was appointed to the bench in 2009.
James T. Doyle was first named a Kane County Associate Judge in 1989; three years later, he was elected as a Circuit Judge. In 2000, Doyle helped launch the county’s drug court. But in February, 2005, the Judicial Inquiry Board alleged that Doyle had systematically violated the rights of criminal defendants in his drug court, among other acts of judicial misconduct. The charges were dismissed when Doyle resigned from the bench while the charges were pending. Doyle last registered to practice law in 2012 and is now retired, collecting $128,257.08 in his pension this year.
In 2012, Brim was charged with battery of a Cook County Deputy Sheriff over an incident at the Daley Center, an event that led to a Judicial Inquiry Board complaint that she was unfit to serve as a judge. The Illinois Courts Commission accepted the recommendation of the Judicial Inquiry Board and removed Brim in 2014, finding that her actions “brought the judicial office into disrepute and demeaned the integrity of the judiciary.”