Illinois

Losing litigant who threw chair at defendant cop after verdict gets 5 years

A Chicago man who has a history of issues with a suburban police officer had hoped for a jury award in his favor after filing a federal civil rights suit. But when the jury ruled in the defendant’s favor last yea,r Lavelle Watts Jr. lost it. He threw a courtroom…

Aug 21, 2014 10:20 PM CDT

Man beat murder charge in detective’s death, but feds seek life term in drug case, citing slaying

State prosecutors dropped a murder case against Justin “J-Rock” Austin in the 2008 slaying of a Chicago police officer, alleging the defendant and others intimidated witnesses from testifying. However, federal prosecutors are now seeking a life sentence for Austin in an unrelated Chicago drug case in which he has been…

Aug 21, 2014 7:50 PM CDT

Hacking software in Batman movie doesn’t infringe on real-life product, says 7th Circuit

Corrected: Saying that moviegoers aren’t likely to confuse fictional hacking software coveted by Catwoman in a recent Batman movie with a similar-sounding real-life product that has a legitimate purpose, a federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a trademark infringement suit. Although Fortres Grand Corp. argued that…

Aug 18, 2014 10:45 PM CDT

Ex-patient sues hospital and rabbi because his amputated leg was cremated

A former patient who is an Orthodox Jew is pursuing a lawsuit against a suburban Chicago hospital and a rabbi working there because his leg was cremated after being amputated below the knee, contrary to the mandate of his religion. Moshe Lefkowitz, 43, contends in the Cook County case that…

Aug 18, 2014 2:45 PM CDT

Website that facilitated sale of gun used in fatal shooting has no tort liability, 7th Circuit says

Corrected: A website that facilitated the illegal sale of a gun used to kill a woman has no liability in her death, a federal appeals court has ruled. The Chicago-based 7th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Armslist.com on Tuesday in a suit filed by the brother of…

Aug 13, 2014 7:12 PM CDT

Home Depot sued over off-site slaying of pregnant woman by her supervisor

The mother of a pregnant young woman beaten and strangled to death by her work supervisor during an off-site trip to attend his sister’s wedding has filed a civil wrongful death complaint against two companies that allegedly had a role in supervising the now-convicted murderer, Brian M. Cooper, 37. Filed…

Aug 13, 2014 4:45 PM CDT

Chicago lawyer gets 6-year sentence for sexual assault

Chicago real estate lawyer Anthony Bergamino Jr., has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a Gold Coast hotel two years ago. Bergamino, 51, was convicted of sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times report. “There…

Aug 8, 2014 5:18 PM CDT

Law grads sue over ‘Barmageddon,’ seek refund of software fee and punitive damages

Law graduates in at least two states have filed suit over a so-called Barmageddon software glitch that reportedly made it impossible for a number of test-takers to submit their answers on time last month on the first day of the bar exam. Although the deadline was extended in all affected…

Aug 7, 2014 3:45 PM CDT

Feds raid criminal defense lawyer’s office, seek conflict hearings in multiple cases

A rising star among Chicago’s criminal defense bar is the target of a federal criminal probe concerning possible subornation of perjury in a 2009 drug case. Attorney Beau Brindley’s downtown law office was raided by the FBI last month, and the feds are now seeking conflict hearings for multiple clients,…

Aug 6, 2014 8:00 PM CDT

Lawyer who speculated in court filing about missing Malaysia Air flight faces legal ethics case

A legal ethics case is being pursued against an Illinois attorney who made headlines by filing the first lawsuit over the Malaysia Air flight that disappeared in March. Exactly what happened to Flight 370 remains unknown. Hence the petition by Monica Kelly—who is licensed to practice law under the name…

Aug 6, 2014 3:35 PM CDT

LinkedIn settles with feds, agrees to pay nearly $6M in FLSA ‘off the clock’ and overtime case

Notified by the feds that it had violated wage-and-hour laws, a well-known company opted to settle the case rather than fight allegations that nonexempt hourly employees in four states weren’t paid for all of their work. LinkedIn Corp. agreed to pay $3.3 million in overtime back wages and $2.5 million…

Aug 4, 2014 10:09 PM CDT

Northwestern sues ex-employee, says author took book she was paid to write on infamous murder case

A former part-time employee and published author has been sued by Northwestern University for copyright infringement. Northwestern contends in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that Nina Barrett was paid, while working on a library fellowship, to write about a notorious 1924 murder by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and…

Jul 24, 2014 8:25 PM CDT

Pro se defendant held in contempt and gets 180 days for refusing to approach bench at trial

Defending himself at a suburban Chicago jury trial earlier this month on charges related to his alleged cultivation of 19 marijuana plants at home did not turn out well for Scott Hochstetter. When the 32-year-old refused to identify himself on July 15 and declined to approach the bench, as instructed,…

Jul 24, 2014 6:25 PM CDT

Online adoption service resolves suit by Illinois AG

An online adoption service that matches prospective parents with birth mothers has entered into a consent decree to resolve a suit by the Illinois Attorney General’s office that claimed the agency was not approved to place children in the state. The Adoption Network Law Center registered with the state after…

Jul 24, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

Official says Chicago will allow drivers to appeal 9,000 red-light tickets after usual deadline

Some 9,000 drivers who may have inappropriately been ticketed in Chicago for running a red light over issues with a controversial camera system will be able to fight their cases, even though the usual deadline for doing so has expired. Details of how that challenge process will work were not…

Jul 23, 2014 10:20 PM CDT