State's Attorney
Kane County, Illinois
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gorecki26.html
Kane state's attorney is hoping for leniency
BY DAN ROZEK STAFF REPORTER
Trying to hang on to her law license and her political
career, Kane County State's Attorney Meg Gorecki has filed an appeal with
Illinois' attorney-discipline agency, asking that she receive only a censure
for violating bar ethics by leaving phone messages in which she said she
could get a county job for an acquaintance in return for campaign contributions
to a political ally.
Earlier this year, a hearing board from that same
agency, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, recommended
that Gorecki's law license be suspended for six months as a penalty for
professional misconduct. Such a punishment could force her to step down
as Kane County's top legal officer.
In her appeal to the commission, Gorecki asks for
a less severe punishment, a censure. That would allow her to keep her law
license and keep serving as the Chicago area's first female state's attorney.
In documents made public Tuesday, Gorecki admits the
series of phone messages she left on a friend's answering machine in 1998
and 1999 were untrue and unethical, but said her remorse for her actions
and her history of honesty and public service merit giving her a lesser
punishment.
Her appeal is 32 pages long. In it, Gorecki's attorneys
also repeatedly state that Gorecki, despite what she said in the phone
messages, never really tried to arrange county jobs or broker campaign
contributions for Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy, a political ally.
"Without intending to diminish [Gorecki's] shockingly
unethical statements, the words never became deeds,'' wrote her lawyers,
Sheila Finnegan and William Martin. "Absolutely nothing happened--Respondent
performed no illegal acts, offered no bribes, sought no improper influence,
made no attempt to bribe, no money changed hands, no steps of any kind
were ever taken to implement the inexcusable words.'
Through an aide, Gorecki declined to comment Tuesday
on the appeal. Her phone messages surfaced weeks before her upset victory
in the March 2000 Republican primary. In tearful testimony last fall before
a disciplinary hearing board, Gorecki said there never was any scheme to
broker jobs for campaign contributions, but she couldn't offer any explanation
for the messages she left.
In April, the hearing board recommended by a vote
of 2-1 that Gorecki's law license be suspended for six months for her misconduct.
Legal experts said Gorecki could not continue acting as state's attorney
without a valid law license, though it's unclear if she would have to resign
the position.
It's the first time a sitting state's attorney has
faced punishment from the disciplinary commission, which is an arm of the
Illinois Supreme Court, authorities said.
Ultimately, the decision on how Gorecki is punished rests with the Supreme Court, which could accept, reject or modify the proposed penalty--with options ranging from no punishment to disbarment. Her appeal could delay a final decision by the Illinois Supreme Court on her punishment for up to a year.
Arguments on her appeal will be held later this year
before the review board, which consists of nine attorneys appointed by
the Supreme Court, said James Grogan, legal counsel for the ARDC.
email: clr@clr.org
