Chicago Lawyer vs Marines.

[California Tanker]

I've been following this on BlackFive.

Cliff Notes:

Marine Sgt Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour). On December 1st, 2007, Mike went to visit a friend in Chicago before deploying to say goodbye. In order to get to his friend's residence, and keep in mind that Chicago is a myriad of diagonal and one-way streets, the front entrance (right way) to the one-way street was blocked. Mike, being a Marine, overcame and adapted by driving around the block to the other end of the street and backing up all the way to his friend's place.

While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides

After caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, he made additional anti-military comments.

As it turns out, the man is Chicago lawyer Jay R. Grodner, who owns a law firm in the city and has offices in the suburbs.

After sending the car to the body shop, it was determined there is $2400 in damage, making this a felony. Mike went to court Friday morning to collect the damages against Mr. Grodner and file felony charges. Though the damages are over $300 (the amount which determines felony or misdemeanor) Grodner offered Mike to pay his deductible, $100, and have Mike's insurance pay for it.

The Illinois States Attorneys tried to coerce Mike into accepting the offer. Appalled, Mike said he wanted this to be a felony. The state told Mike that it was not worth pursuing felony damage against Grodner because they don't have the time. In addition, the state prosecutors told him that it 'would be difficult to recover the damages' from Grodner because he is a lawyer.

Instead, the State asked Mike if he would accept probation for Grodner. Mike accepted, probation was offered to Grodner, and Grodner declined the offer, saying within ear shot of Mike, "I'm not going to make it easy on this kid".

OK, so that set the stage. It got picked up by BlackFive,and then whirled its happy way around the Blogosphere, to the extent that the State's Attorney had a change of heart and decided it was going to vigorously pursue the issue. (Incidently, the Blogosphere also managed to find said lawyer's internet personal, stating that he likes sex a lot). Lawyer has a slight history.

In 1978, he was an Assistant State's Attorney and, along with four other attorneys, forged names to petition for a state referendum.
In 1979, he was found guilty of election law misdemeanor, place on probation for 6 months and fined $ 1,000.
In 1984, he was censured by the Illinois Supreme Court for that misconduct (Five years? IL works quick...)

In any case, it gets to court, the laywer gets off to a good start by not showing up.

Jay R Grodner was called before court and in his absence, the Judge issued a warrant for his arrest effective immediately. Sgt McNulty was departing the court when Grodner rolled in to the courtroom more pathetic than anyone I had ever seen. The Judge had questioned him on his tardiness and he explained that traffic had been busy and he 'made a wrong turn'. The Judge chastised him for his tardiness, pathetic excuses, and that he was lucky the warrant had not been executed prior to his arrival.

Anyway, cue the second showing in court, and the genius decides to be late again. Transcript is at BLACKFIVE: Anti-Military Lawyer In Court Tomorrow Today, and he gets arrested. It probably didn't help his case that the prosecutor was a Marine, and so was the Judge.

THE SHERIFF: Put your hands behind your

12 back.

13 THE DEFENDANT: Jesus Christ.

14 THE COURT: You're the Defendant, sir. You're

15 in custody. You have to behave as such.

Newspaper picked it up.
Man who keyed car gets day in court; so do Marines -- chicagotribune.com

Apparently he's going to France to get away from it all for a bit. Shining example of legal ethics there...

NTM