By Nicole Ziegler Dizon
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 8, 2001
CHICAGO -- A LaSalle County judge, who was arrested in 1998 after she veered into a ditch and drove along railroad tracks, received a reprimand Friday from the Illinois Courts Commission.
A judicial panel initially had accused Circuit Judge Cynthia Raccuglia of trying to use her clout to talk her way out of drunken-driving charges, but the Judicial Inquiry Board dropped those claims, acknowledging that none of the police officers who stopped her believed she was trying to influence their conduct.
The reprimand, essentially a public admonition, does not affect Raccuglia's job. She has kept her spot on the bench since the complaint was filed.
"I think it vindicates her," said Anthony Raccuglia, the judge's father and a lawyer in her case.
A Bureau County sheriff's deputy initially encountered Cynthia Raccuglia after noticing that passers-by had fished her car from a ditch. The deputy, who knew she was a judge, agreed to follow her car and pulled her over after she turned onto railroad tracks.
Although the judge asked the deputy several times, "Do you know who I am?" the deputy said that he did not interpret that as an attempt to influence him, according to the disciplinary agreement.
Anthony Raccuglia said his daughter asked the question because she did not have her driver's license, and she knew the deputy had tracked her license plates. He noted that, when the deputy began explaining field-sobriety tests, she told him she was an attorney and understood the process.
Raccuglia, a judge in the county since 1991, failed several field-sobriety tests. She eventually pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
09/08/01
email: clr@clr.org