Fireworks in DuPage County

Another scumbag lawyer tried to get me in trouble

Yesterday, I travelled to the DuPage County Courthouse in DuPage County, Illinois to witness the latest hearing in the ongoing saga of the divorce between Dr. Madison Sample and Jackie Sample.

I interviewed Jackie about her divorce in May.

Dr. Sample is hiding millions in assets, while continuing to lie about how much money he makes.

At different times, he’s presented under oath to the court that he makes $12,000 per month or $20,000 per month, while Jackie has provided evidence that it’s more likely around $50,000 per month.

The two owned a home in Burr Ridge, which Dr. Sample wants sold because he claims it’s their only asset. Dr. Sample has represented to the court it’s worth $1,900,000. It’s probably not. It’s probably worth close to $3,000,000, but Judge James Orel, who presides over the case, can’t be bothered with those minor disputes.

Views from inside the home that Jackie Sample currently occupies alone

Jackie said she gave up her career to oversee the building and remodeling of the home which took three years. Now, she is being forced out, which may leave her homeless.

Views from the home’s deck

Judge Orel has gone along with most of what Dr. Sample wants so he even signed an order forcing the sale of this home.

Jackie has refused to sign a contract to sell the home, and that’s what brought everyone to room 3012 of the DuPage County Courthouse, where Dr. Sample’s attorney, Matt “the Munchkin” Elster brought a contempt motion which could have seen Jackie jailed for her continued refusal to sell her home.

Matt is a little small. Normally, I wouldn’t make an issue of it, but he’s also a scumbag lawyer, so everyone should make fun of him.

Mr. Elster told Judge Orel that Jackie was in “direct contempt” and seeked judicial sanctions.

Before the Munchkin could jail Jackie, a legal curveball was thrown at him.

Jackie had filed the afternoon prior a motion “for cause” to have Judge Orel removed for bias.

The Munchkin quickly cited an Illinois Supreme Court case and asked Judge Orel to dismiss it.

Judge Orel explained that he could either dismiss it or send it over to Judge Richard Felice to decide.

Matt made a strong argument, and Judge Orel doesn’t like Jackie, but Judge Orel decided that Judge Felice needed to hear the matter.

Jackie then asked Judge Orel to hear another matter, but Judge Orel told her that if she asked to have him removed for cause he could not hear anything she asked.

There was some confusion, and Jackie took a moment to consider her options.

She came back and asked to have her motion to recuse heard. At that point, the Munchkin handed Lazy Judge Orel an order.

That’s right. The Munchkin did the judge’s homework and wrote his order.

I found this strange so as we headed out of courtroom 3012, where Judge Orel presides, and to courtroom 3009, where Judge Felice presides, I fired off a few questions to the Munchkin.

Judge Richard Felice

“Do you often write judge’s orders?” I asked, “Why do you write orders for judges?”

The Munchkin is shy, so he didn’t answer; instead, he tattled.

It’s actually not that strange. Lawyers usually do judge’s homework and write their orders. As Jackie explained, the Munchkin likes to add in his own twists when he does Judge Orel’s homework, so the Munchkin makes the orders even worse than Lazy Judge Oreal wants.

Another lazy judge who had lawyers write orders.

Upon arriving in courtroom 3009, he told the bailiff I was “harassing” him.

“I think he’s a reporter {doing his job}” the Munchkin told the bailiff.

The female bailiff and I had a discussion about the first amendment, and I was allowed to stay.

In Judge Felice’s courtroom, the only decision was how quickly to hear Jackie’s motion.

There is another hearing on July 17, so Judge Felice- correctly I believe- wanted to dispose of this quickly.

He wanted to read Jackie’s motion and resume in the afternoon. We were in Judge Felice’s courtroom at approximately 10:00 AM.

The Munchkin was confident, telling Judge Felice that he needed no extra time despite receiving the motion less than twenty four hours ago.

Judge Felice felt that things should proceed.

Jackie asked for a few days to consult an attorney.

Judge Felice- correctly I believe- argued that she filed the motion pro se so she could argue it, but then adjourned the matter until July 16.

The Munchkin was sad. His dream of putting Jackie into jail and selling the home under market value would have to wait a week.

Outside, Jackie told me she and the Munchkin had another conversation where he insisted, she needs “to settle.”

Jackie would like to settle, except Dr. Sample is hiding millions, and the Munchkin would like to settle pretending the house is the only asset.