Well, day-um, son! If'n y'all gon' be acceptin' a bribe, least git somethin' mo' than a plate o' chicken fer it.
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com From: ravena...@yahoo.com Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:02:27 +0000 Subject: [scifinoir2] Judge accepts jerk chicken meal over original sentence Judge in hot water after unusual deal http://waodief.notlong.com www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicken-judge-29-oct29,0,7705624.story chicagotribune.com Court accepts barbecue chicken instead of community service Judge in hot water after unusual deal By Steve Schmadeke Tribune reporter October 29, 2009 A Will County judge says he's eating his words after accepting a tray of jerk chicken as a substitute for a man's sentence of 100 community service hours. The local legal community has been abuzz since Associate Judge Robert Livas accepted the Jamaican-style chicken from Darrius Logan this month over an objection from a prosecutor. Logan, 24, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges after an incident in Joliet. Logan told the judge in August he performed his community service by working 100 unpaid hours at Uncle Joe's Jerk Chicken, a popular Jamaican restaurant chain on Chicago's South Side. According to court transcripts, the judge told Logan to return in two months with either proof that he had completed the service hours elsewhere or with enough spiced chicken to feed the courtroom. Livas said he was surprised Oct. 6 when Logan carried in a tray of Uncle Joe's jerk chicken, bread and two sides of hot sauce. Livas, a former prosecutor and Chicago police officer, said it was simply a joke gone awry. "A defendant took something I said as a joke literally," Livas said. "It forced me to keep my word and accept his original (community service) letter. I give him credit -- he made me eat my words. "Last year I'm getting the judge of the year award from the Illinois State Crime Commission," he said, laughing. "And here now I'm answering questions about barbecue chicken." Gerald Kinney, chief judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit, didn't find the incident as humorous, saying in a statement that it "has been referred for review to the appropriate agency." The state's judicial inquiry board, which investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, did not comment. Legal experts called the judge's actions "flagrant," with one saying it was at least a minor violation of the judicial code of conduct. There are differing accounts on whether the judge ate any of the seasoned bird. Livas said he took a piece, carried it from the courtroom, but did not eat it. The prosecutor -- who took a piece after Livas encouraged her to try it -- said the judge ate some, too, said state's attorney's office spokesman Charles Pelkie. According to a transcript of the electronically recorded Aug. 4 hearing, Livas had said, "If you walk in with enough chicken to feed everybody, I'll accept these community service hours. If you don't, I'm not taking any of them." "Does that come with slaw?" the judge later asked, according to the transcript. "No," Logan replied. "It's just -- it's barbecue chicken, actually." "That's great stuff," Livas said, later adding, "If you walk around there and feed everybody, it's going to be OK." Reached by phone, Logan said he spent $50 to do what the judge asked. "He told me to bring him some chicken, so that's what I had to do," said Logan, who was representing himself. Court records say Livas accepted the chicken over the objections of Assistant State's Attorney Sondra Denmark. She told her bosses, who called the chief judge that day, Pelkie said. "She did not understand how he could accept food in lieu of community service work," Pelkie said. On Oct. 6, Logan carried the chicken past security up to the third-floor courtroom of Associate Judge Marzell Richardson, who, after asking a series of seemingly puzzled questions ("You brought a tray of chicken?" "And that was going to satisfy your community service work?"), sent him to Livas' courtroom, according to a transcript. "I was so nervous about bringing it in here, though, because I knew everybody was going to laugh at me," Logan told Livas, according to the transcript. The one-page transcript ends abruptly before Livas accepts the food or Denmark objects. Pelkie said the judge pushed a button that stops the recording. "Thank you so much for bringing it," Livas says before it ends. "This was a stupid mistake for the judge to make," said DePaul University law professor Jeffrey Shaman. "It's perhaps a minor violation. But ... it makes a mockery of what judges are supposed to do." sschmad...@tribune.com Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted more reliable, now it's more reliable. Wow! http://microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default-ga.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:102009
