Illinois Judge pleads guilty in Federal Court
By Mike Robinson, A Matter of Justice

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A Cook County judge pleaded guilty today to tax evasion and a currency violation in what federal prosecutors described as a plan to buy his seat on the bench for $30,000.

'The plea is guilty, your honor,' Circuit Judge George J.W. Smith told U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle.

Federal prosecutors say Smith illegally withdrew $20,400 from his bank account to keep a promise to pay $30,000 to an unnamed individual in return for that person using influence to get Smith his judgeship.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean Polales acknowledged that at the sentencing, which Norgle set for July 10, Smith and his attorneys were most likely to argue that he had no plan to pay for his judgeship.

Smith pleaded guilty to withdrawing the money from his bank account in three transactions in April 1995. Banks are required to report any currency transaction over $10,000. But as Smith structured the three withdrawals, none would have to be reported. The money was initially an early withdrawal from a pension fund.

Polales said Smith is expected to argue at the sentencing hearing that he withdrew the money in three amounts merely to avoid the tax consequence of the early withdrawal and for no other reason, and to deny that he had any scheme to buy his judgeship.

Smith's former wife reportedly said in the course of their divorce that he had taken out the money to pay someone to use his influence to help him get an appointment to the bench.

When the investigation first got under way, FBI agents descended on the Illinois Supreme Court and interviewed several justices concerning the court's appointment of Smith in 1995.

As part of his signed plea agreement, Smith also admitted other acts of wrongdoing, including lying to a law firm to get a $9,308 legal referral fee that should have gone to the estate of his late brother.

Prosecutors planned to drop those charges, however, as part of the plea bargain with Smith.

Judge Spoke Of Payoffs
Gambling Magazine

A judge at the center of a federal probe into the Illinois Supreme Court's judicial appointments told the FBI he did not buy his seat on the Cook County bench, but had heard judgeships could be bought for $30,000 to $50,000, according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Attorneys for Cook County Judge George J.W. Smith made portions of the judge's FBI statements public for the first time in recent court documents.

Smith's attorneys also revealed other potentially embarrassing details about their client in the court papers, which ironically are aimed at quashing any effort by prosecutors to reveal the same information to jurors at his upcoming trial in an unusual financial case.

Among other new details:

* Smith's ex-wife, Carlotta Martini, claimed the judge paid $30,000 for his seat on the bench, not the $20,000 previously reported.

* Smith allegedly racked up more than $22,000 in gambling markers and cash advances on credit cards at casinos in Las Vegas; Reno, Nev., and Joliet from October 1994 to November 1996. He was a judge for much of that time.

Smith was indicted in April and charged with illegally slipping $20,100 out of his bank account in 1995 through withdrawals designed to camouflage the cash transactions from government watchdogs. He has pleaded not guilty.

The federal indictment is extremely unusual because such charges are rarely, if ever, levied alone. They are typically aimed only at defendants who also face drug or money-laundering charges.

Smith, 54, of Elmwood Park, made the withdrawals shortly after his 1995 appointment by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Charles Freeman to a temporary judgeship.

Martini sparked the federal probe when she alleged during the couple's divorce that Smith used the cash and about $10,000 more to buy the appointment with a payment to a third party. Federal prosecutors have not levied any such charges or alleged any wrongdoing by Freeman.

"About $20,000, plus the $10,000 that was already in our savings account, a joint account, all of that was withdrawn for my husband's judgeship," Martini said, according to the newly filed court records.

Documents filed by Smith's attorneys also detail Martini's handwritten notes recapping her alleged financial contributions to the marriage. Next to a notation about $10,000, she wrote: "This money was for my husband's direct appointment as Circuit Court judge." She also named the person who allegedly received the money and underlined the man's name.

Smith's attorneys have deleted the man's name from their filings, referring to him as "Person A." But they did say the man in question did not hold a public office at the time.

Smith denied his wife's allegations during an interview with two FBI agents on April 5, 1995.

But the agents' notes from the interview, reprinted in Smith's court filings, show the following: "Smith does not have any direct knowledge of people paying for judicial positions and did not want to give the names of anyone about whom he has heard rumors. [But] Smith has heard that judicial appointments can be bought for $30,000 if the nominee is a Democrat or $50,000 if the nominee is a Republican."

Smith's lawyers, Marc Martin and Thomas M. Breen, want all of the judge's statements and Martini's barred from the trial, arguing they will unfairly tar the judge. They also want any evidence about his gambling quashed.

"While many forms of gambling are legal in today's society, gambling by a circuit judge might be frowned upon by lay jurors," they said.

Martin and Breen also said: "The government's star witness promises to be the defendant's ex-wife, who will enjoy the coup de grace of any spiteful divorcee: an opportunity to attempt to send the ex to prison."

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A Matter of Justice