Stories you may have missed in the week just past

Red light for Redflex. The supplier of Chicago's red light cameras, Redflex Traffic Systems, was informed this week that its contract will not be renewed this summer and has been disqualified from bidding on Mayor Emanuel's 'speed cameras,' "amid claims the company showered a city official with thousands of dollars in free trips—including a jaunt to the Super Bowl," according to Rachel M. Zahorsky's article Tuesday for ABA Journal Law News Now. Citing a Tribune story, Zahorsky writes that the chairman of Redflex Holdings has resigned "and trading in the company’s stock was suspended amid revelations that it is sharing information with law enforcement authorities."

Nine judges in ticket-fixing scandal in Pennsylvania. Rachel Zahorsky had another article Tuesday on ABA Journal Law News Now about H. Warren Hogeland, a Philadelphia Traffic Court judge, who pled guilty this week to mail fraud and conspiracy charges. Hogeland is one of nine present or former Philadelphia Trial Court judges "charged with dismissing or reducing citations for friends, family, associates and political allies." The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on February 13 that another former Traffic Court judge, Kenneth Miller, also pled guilty.

In a February 1 story, John P. Martin and Craig R. McCoy of the Inquirer described the scandal in these terms:

The indictment alleged that a practice was more the rule than the exception - judges or their assistants shredding documents, shifting cases to friendly judges, and hiding behind code words. Instead of bluntly asking a colleague to quash a ticket, judges allegedly asked for "consideration" on certain cases and then watched them disappear.

Consideration, the indictment said, was reserved for friends and relatives, ward leaders, and contractors or merchants who could trade favors of their own. Requests came by phone, in person, and in notes dropped in a box at a local bar.

"In addition to depriving the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania of funds rightly owed on traffic violations, their corrupt conduct also undermined the confidence that law-abiding citizens have in our Philadelphia court system," U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said.

By the end of last week, according to the Inquirer, the Philadelphia State Senate had passed two bills, one to "eliminate the seven-member court from the state constitution, which would require several years to accomplish. The second would hobble the court in the interim by transferring its responsibilities to Philadelphia Municipal Court."

Blogging can be hazardous to one's law license. The Martindale.com Blog had a post Monday entitled "Chicago Attorney Faces Ethics Violation For Airing Grievances on Blog." The blog in question, marygsykes.com is subtitled, "[a]n attorney blog concerning corruption and greed in the Probate Court of Cook County."

The ARDC has charged the attorney-proprietor of the marygsykes.com blog with "making a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory officer or public legal officer, in violation of Rule 8.2 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct," "conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation, in violation of Rule 8.4(c) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct," "conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, in violation of Rule 8.4(d) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct," "presenting, participating in presenting, or threatening to present criminal charges to obtain an advantage in a civil matter, in violation of Rule 8.4(g) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct," and "conduct which tends to defeat the administration of justice or to bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute." (The ARDC's entire complaint against the blogger can be accessed by clicking here.)

One of the things they try to teach lawyers and movie directors alike is "show, don't tell." It's more persuasive for the the audience to reach conclusions on their own, on the basis of facts presented, than to be presented with demands that they accept the ultimate conclusions of the lawyer or director. I do not pretend to know one single thing about the cases that the blogger is so upset over, and I do not presume to have an informed opinion about the merits of the ARDC's complaint, but I have looked at the blog in question, and it seems to me there is a lot more telling than showing going on there.