March 23, 2000

The Honorable Judge O'Connell
Chief Justice Cook County Circuit Court
Richard J. Daley Center
50 West Washington, Room 2600
Chicago, Illinois 60602

Dear Judge O'Connell,

This letter is written to bring to your attention questionable proceedings in the Court-room of Associate Judge Anna Gillis on Thursday 23-March-2000 at or about 11:30 a.m.

Before the proceedings in the hallway and during the proceedings in the court-room it was observed, and can be corroborated, that an officer bearing Star # 12085 from the 6th District, was engaged in conversations with female defendants that he wrote citations against. When the defendants were called to plead guilty or not guilty they all plead guilty. The City attorney would then ask Officer 12085 if he could recall the circumstances of the citation upon which Officer 12085 would reply "no, I cannot".

This would not be suspect save for the fact that Officer 12085 could remember, with explicit detail, circumstances of citations written on dates much earlier against defendants that were male. In one case, Officer 12085 was heard giving explicit instructions to a young, attractive female on what to do and say when her name was called. After doing what he said, her case was dismissed and she gave him a knowing wink as she walked past him exiting the court-room.

All of this was witnessed by Judge Gillis yet she turned a blind eye to it. Your Honor incidents like this certainly do not help to alleviate suspect public opinion of our courts. Favoritism of female defendants, does the system two injustices: 1. Against males that are judged by a different standard than females and 2. Places women in a position to perceive they must acquiesce to male officers advances. This is a poor indicator of the judicial temperament of Judge Gillis and gives pause to her qualifications as a member of the judiciary.

In the face of retaliation by the members of the police dept. and the courts, I hope that reporting such an incident will lead to an investigation of this matter and put a halt to such practices by Officer 12085 and Judge Gillis.

Sincerely,

Timothy Thomas, Jr.

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