MY PLEA TO GOVERNOR QUINN: PARDON THOSE CONVICTED BY "OPERATION GREYLORD" JUDGES

Dear Governor Quinn:

I am requesting you pardon and expunge the records of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who were convicted and sentenced by "Operation Greylord" judges. Several Greylord Judges (Courtesty of FBI)The FBI was successful at rooting out the evils of 17 Cook County judges; however, those who were the victims of the judges' convictions and sentencings were completely ignored.

Operation Greylord is the name of an FBI investigation in the 80's that spanned over the course of 3 1/2 years. As you know, Operation Greylord is still recognized to this day as one of the FBI's most successful undercover investigations. The first listening device ever placed in a judge's chambers occurred in the undercover phase, when the narcotics court chambers of Cook County Circuit Court Judge Wayne Olson were bugged. Over 100 people were indicted. The last conviction was that of Judge Thomas Maloney, who was convicted of fixing three murder cases. Maloney was released from federal prison in 2008. A total of 92 people were indicted, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, ten deputy sheriffs, eight policemen, eight court officials, and a member of the Illinois Legislature. (See Wikipedia for further information.)

As a result of the corruption within Cook County, many people were wrongly convicted and sentenced to crimes they did not commit or they were not given a fair trial because of their attorney and/or judge's involvement in their case.

Judge Ciavarella Your pardoning and expunging the records of these individuals would follow suit of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On October 29, 2009, the Court ruled that almost all juvenile cases heard by Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella from Jan. 1, 2003 to May 31, 2008 must be thrown out. Judge Ciavearella has been indicted for "taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from owners of private detention centers in exchange for placing juvenile defendants at their facilities, often for minor crimes." Article here.

Over 6500 juveniles will have their records expunged. Many states automatically expunge a juvenile's criminal record; however, Pennsylvania does not. (Here, in Illinois, juvenile records are also not automatically expunged; instead, a petition must be filed and the judge must enter an order to expunge the juvenile record.)

Greylord judges were not juvenile judges but the issue is still the same: like Judge Ciavearella, Greylord judges did not act impartially but instead had a vested interest in cases by getting paid by defense attorneys in exchange for favorable sentence.

For example, one man pleaded guilty to a crime he did not commit because his attorney (whom he met when the attorney approached him in the hallway the first day of court) told him that if he signed over his bond money, the attorney would "make the case go away." Little did the man know that he was pleading guilty to felony probation and would be a convicted felon for the rest of his life.

Each person's story is different, of course, but in the fairness of justice, I believe it is only appropriate to remove the crimes of those convicted by the 17 Greylord judges. Too many lives have been permanently ruined by corrupt judges. The incarceration of the Greylord judges is only one piece of righting their wrongs. The victims in these cases should also be rehabilitated by an pardon and or expungement of any case heard before the Greylord judges.

Governor Quinn, thousands of Illinois residents were affected by the Greylord corruption. The FBI did an incredible job at rooting out the evils within the justice system but rehabilitating the victims somehow was dismissed.

I know you are incredibly busy dealing with other serious matters; however, the power to pardon is an enumerated power given soley to you, our Governor.  Political backlash often follows after a pardon is granted but, in this case, your actions are would be clearly reasonable and justified. I look forward to hearing your response to my request.

Sincerely,

Tamara N. Holder - Attorney for and on behalf of Greylord victims

www.xpunged.com

RE-LAUNCH OF WWW.XPUNGED.COM - CLEARING YOUR ILLINOIS CRIMINAL RECORD

I just want to remind you that I re-launched my website www.xpunged.com last week.  We are really trying to get the word out that IF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN FINGERPRINTED BY THE POLICE, YOU HAVE A RECORD THAT IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC! There is no such thing as your record disappearing if your case was dismissed, or if a certain period of time has passed. No matter what someone has told you, even if that someone was a judge or a lawyer, you have a record unless it has been expunged, sealed or pardoned.

I have a page with tons of info on expungement here and pardons here. Please visit our new page and allow us to pull your record and identify how we can clear it!

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com

MICHAEL VICK'S RETURN TO NFL: LOOKING AT BOTH SIDES OF THE FIELD

Michael Vick (Copyright "The Starting Five") Every time I write about athletes, I feel inclined to remind you that I was engaged to an NFL player for the first 6 years of his career.  So, my opinions of professional athletes and professional sports comes with a rare insider's perspective: a) most significant others of professional athletes do not publicly share their opinions, and b) if they do speak out, they surely don't they bring a combined legal background.

With that said, the Michael Vick issue allows for me to look at his case from both sides of the field. On one side, I'm a criminal defense attorney.  On the other side, I'm a insider who has witnessed the behaviors of professional athletes who hold themselves out to be role models but certainly do not act accordingly.

From the criminal defense attorney's side of the field, I believe Michael Vick should be able to return to football.  As an attorney who focuses her practice on expungement of criminal records, I believe people who have done their time for the crime, should be allowed to return to work. What else is Michael Vick going to do besides play football? No, don't make the argument that he has so much money to do something else.  Money isn't the issue.  What about the carpenter or the truck driver who is released after doing his time? These people must be allowed to return to work so they can provide for their families. If not, their risk of recidivism increases.  Michael Vick did his time, now let him get back to the field.

From the other side of the field, as an ex-fiancée of a NFL player, I have reservations about whether Michael Vick should return.  Criminal behavior in professional sports is rampant.  The players are constantly getting into trouble; to name a few: Pacman Jones, Plaxico Burress, Ray Lewis...that's just to name a few. Then, you have the baseball players who are accused of using illegal steroids to enhance their performance. And if you put all the publicly known criminal behaviors aside, what about all the stuff that goes on behind closed doors that is never reported but generally known and accepted? From this side of the field, I say Michael Vick was given an opportunity to play in the NFL and by engaging in criminal behavior, he violated the terms of his contract.  A professional athlete held to a higher standard - that's part of the job.  From this side of the field, I say that if the NFL reinstates Michael Vick, they are sending the wrong signal to its players and its fans.

 See my blog on Plaxico Burress: Professional Athletes Continue to Shoot Themselves in the Foot

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com

Fox Chicago Investigates CPD Officer Daniel Bora - Tamara's Client Interviewed for Story

Daniel Bora: Costing Chicago Millions

By Jeff Goldblatt

Daniel Bora was not happy to see Fox Chicago News when asked why he's cost the city more than four million dollars in court settlements.

Fox Chicago discovered that since 1998, Bora has been sued at least twenty times. He was accused of abusing his authority.

The cases are remarkably consistent. Each one involves somebody who claims to have been falsely arrested, assaulted, or injured.

Take what Malcolm Gieren and Freddie Freeman say happened to them.

“I know what he did was very unprofessional, very unethical,” said Macolm Gieren.

Gieran, who has served time before, spent twenty months behind bars for heroin possession: a crime he says he didn't commit. After playing basketball one afternoon, he insists Bora and some other cops grabbed him and a half dozen other guys he'd never met. Then, the police officers brought them to the back of an alley for a cavity check.

So I grabbed the back of my belt buckle to resist so when they grabbed to pull my pants down. I tried to resist and it was a tussle with them in the middle of the alley trying to prevent them from pulling my pants down. I couldn't win. There were too many of them,” said Gieran.

Freddie Freeman can relate. He was with friends at a barbeque in Garfield Park when he says Bora and some other officers roughed him up after recognizing him from a previous court case against Chicago police.

“They just numb me up real bad and then I got a little concussion,” said Freeman.

He says he was shoved to the ground, arrested, and spent the next two nights in jail.

“You’re supposed to be out here servin and protectin, but most of them are out here servin and neglectin,” said Freeman.

Freeman settled the case for six thousand dollars. But, he says he now lives in fear of police, especially Officer Bora.

“I have panic attacks when I’m out here. I have to look over my back every time I see a police car,” added Freeman.

Freeman's attorney Jeffrey Granich tells us he routinely goes to court because officers like Bora make up charges.

“I think the Chicago Police Department picks on people who are powerless to stop them,” said Granich. I don’t know any business in America where the employees can cost the business millions of dollars and nothing gets done, except the Chicago police department. There it is ok,” said Granich.

Bora has never been in front of the police review board, which reviews officer conduct deemed fit for suspension or dismissal. We requested an interview with superintendant Jody Weiss, but got a statement instead saying that the department refuses to comment because there's another case now pending against Bora.

Private investigator and former state homicide investigator Paul Ciolino agreed to review the lawsuits against Bora for us.

“I’m not putting him on the streets any more cause how many pensions can you pay with four million dollars? How many new cops can you hire with four million dollars? Giving him the greatest benefit of the doubt, he’s still a huge liability for the city” said Ciolino.

When asked if he was surprised that all plaintiffs in the cases are African American, Ciolino said, “I can assure you if they were all white he wouldn’t be on the job,”

But somehow he keeps his job and keeps getting sued. For instance, at a building on West Van Buren, residents took Bora and a dozen other officers to court for raiding the wrong apartment. Witnesses claim after the police officers realized their mistake, the officers mixed baking flour "with some other substance they brought with them" and charged one resident with possession of a controlled substance. The case settled for $50,000.

Bora’s most infamous encounter dates back to 1998. After the Chicago Bulls championship, he was one of three officers accused of firing 24 rounds of ammo into the back of a car full of black teenagers, driving recklessly. The city settled the case for several million dollars. One of the kids, Francis Bell, got his eye shot out.

“They’re here to serve and protect, but that night they did me wrong,” said Bell’s mom.

In fairness to Bora, at least one other officer was sued with him in all twenty lawsuits. A few of the cases have been dismissed. But usually, they're settled for thousands of dollars before they ever go to trial.

“If you see a problem like that, there are problems and the problem is if this gets in front of a jury, we may spend twenty million dollars,” said Ciolino

After Bora refused to talk to our executive producer, we tried calling him outside his apartment building, but got no response.

Gieran's attorney Tamara Holder fears it's only a matter of time before Bora gets into bigger trouble.

“You never know what you're going to get with this guy. He's a loose cannon,” said Holder.

As for Gieran, he agreed to plea guilty in return for being released for time served.

"He took something away from me I can never get back, twenty months of my life for nothing,” said Gieran.

All this time, Gieran kept the jeans he claims Bora had to rip off him to perform the cavity

check. Only now, he's finally willing to put away the past. He's studying to become a guidance counselor to teach kids the lessons he believes officers like Bora never learned.

“How do you go home at night and sleep knowing you locked people up that didn’t have any drugs?” asked Gieran.

Officer Bora is now assigned to station 23 which covers the Wrigleyville area. All of his settlements have been paid for by the city with taxpayer money.

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com

ARRESTED? OPEN YOUR MOUTH! THE FEDS NEED A SWAB OF YOUR DNA.

Yesterday's NY TIMES, published an article about DNA collection by the Feds. More states are moving to take your DNA upon arrest, just like they would take your fingerprints or mugshot. Most states currently require DNA samples to be taken upon conviction of a felony offense. Looks like the trend is now shifting to anyone who gets picked up by the police for any crime. In my opinion, this is a 4th Amendment Privacy violation. Article here.

As you know, I focus my practice on expunging and sealing criminal records. These are not the records of convicted felons but of people who were arrested for misdemeanor offenses and the case was either dismissed from court or they had to do supervision or some minor sentence. This expansion of the law really scares me. Just because we can expunge the person's name and fingerprints from the database, will we be able to expunge a person's DNA?

According to arrest data of 2004 by FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting:

• The number of arrests in the U.S. for all criminal offenses (except traffic violations) was APPROXIMATELY 14 MILLION. (The U.S. population was approximately 291 million) - THAT'S APPROXIMATELY 5% OF OUR POPULATION EVERY YEAR! YES, 5% OF OUR POPULATION IS ARRESTED EVERY YEAR!! Imagine how many people in the entire country have been arrested in the past 40 years - the total number must astounding.
  

• 70.8 percent of arrestees were white, 26.8 percent were black, and 2.4 percent were of other races (American Indian or Alaskan Native and Asian or Pacific Islander).
• Whites were most commonly arrested for driving under the influence (893,212 arrests) and drug abuse violations (821,047 arrests). Blacks were most frequently arrested for drug abuse violations (406,890 arrests) and simple assaults (288,286 arrests). (See Table 43.)

This means that if you get arrested for any reason, regardless if you were wrongly accused, you may have to give your DNA to the Feds! I think the privacy interest of a person arrested for DUI outweighs the public interest in obtaining that person's DNA.

If you look at the statistics above, the majority of arrests are for NON-VIOLENT offenses like DUI and drugs. According to the Times, “I’ve watched women go from mug-book to mug-book looking for the man who raped her,” said Mitch Morrissey, the Denver district attorney and an advocate for more expansive DNA sampling. “It saves women’s lives.” The idea that arrested people must submit their DNA to the database to help solve VIOLENT crimes is preposterous.

Furthermore, we are innocent until proven guilty. It is fundamentally wrong to take DNA from a person who is charged with a crime and not yet convicted.

Released without Charging: What about the people who are arrested but not even charged? Often times, the police will arrest someone who is a "person of interest" or "suspect", hold them for three days for questioning, then release the person without charging because the police realize they have the wrong guy. If the police can get DNA upon arrest, that means the police will use the new law to circumvent the standard investigation that is required to charge someone. It's like this: the police think John Smith is the offender but they aren't sure. They arrest him, swab his cheeks to get DNA, hold him for 3 days and await the DNA results, then release him if it's not a match. Even if he's released, the DNA still remains in the database. The Times even mentions this idea, "The police say that the potential hazards of genetic surveillance are worth it because it solves crimes and because DNA is more accurate than other physical evidence."

How about the police using their investigative skills to solve a crime.  I can guarantee a person who is wrongfully convicted will not be exonerated by the DNA of a person who has no criminal record, is arrested for a bar brawl, and his case is dismissed from court.  Instead, the person who is wrongfully convicted will be exonerated when the real perpetrator is taken into custody on a subsequent crime, ends up pleading guilty and then submits his DNA to the database. 

We cannot allow the government to take our DNA upon arrest!

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com

NY Times Article on DNA: 4/19/09

HERE'S INFORMATION FOR YOU ON ILLINOIS PARDONS

DO YOU WANT A PARDON? IF SO, WE PREPARE YOUR PETITION!

WHAT IS A PARDON?

There are two kinds of pardons: 1) Federal pardon, and 2) State pardon. If you have been convicted of a federal crime, the only person who can grant you a pardon for that crime is President Barack Obama. If you have been convicted of a state crime, the only person who can grant you a pardon for that crime is the Governor of the state where you were convicted. For example if you were convicted in Illinois, the only person who can pardon you is Governor Pat Quinn.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF “PARDON POWER”
1) Clemency: this term is used interchangeably with the other terms below. There are different types of clemency.
a. Pardon: You are asking for forgiveness of your conviction, whether you are in prison or you have already served your time.
b. Commutation: You are in prison and you are asking for your sentence to be reduced. This is not a pardon but you are getting out of prison earlier than the original sentence.
c. Reprieve: You are in prison and you are asking for the death penalty to be stayed.

PROCESS
Each state has a different procedure as to how someone would go about seeking clemency. In Illinois, a person seeking clemency must:
1) Submit a petition to the IL Prisoner Review Board: this petition includes all the information about your case and why you feel you should be pardoned by the Governor. (You can retain us to prepare & submit your petition!)
2) Optional hearing before the Board: After the petition has been submitted, you have the opportunity for a hearing; you present your case before the Board as to why you should be pardoned. (We also appear at your hearing!)
3) The Board makes a confidential recommendation to the Governor, whether they think you should be pardoned.
4) The petition awaits final denial or approval from the Governor. By law, the Governor is not required to make a decision within any period of time. That means you must wait for an answer. You cannot even re-petition the Governor if no decision has been made.

DENIAL: If the Governor denies your petition, you can re-petition one year after the denial. You are never completely barred from seeking a pardon. Keep asking until you are granted the pardon!

APPROVAL: If the Governor grants your pardon request, he will (in most cases) also request an order from the court that your record also must be expunged. A pardon alone, without the order to expunge, does not remove the record of conviction from public access. If you were asking for a commutation of sentence, you will be released from prison; however, a commutation does not mean your conviction will be removed.

WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF RECEVING A GOVERNOR’S PARDON?

Your chances of a pardon are as good as the petition you submit: There is no guarantee that your pardon will be granted because the final decision is left up to one person: the Governor. If a pardon is your only option, then you should petition for one; otherwise, the felony conviction is on your record forever. Your chances are as good as your case. If you made one mistake many years ago and since then you haven’t been in trouble, you have gotten a job and have raised a family, then your chances are better than the person who has been arrested several times since the conviction, has no job experience and no education. The better you can present yourself and your case to the IL Prisoner Review Board and the Governor, the better your chance of receiving the pardon. You don't get unless you ask and you have nothing to lose for asking, so ask for that pardon! We suggest hiring an attorney who knows how to prepare a petition for clemency. Just like you would hire a divorce attorney to help you with your divorce, you should hire a pardon attorney to help you seek a pardon!


SUCCESSFUL COMPLETTION OF FELONY PROBATION – DO I NEED A PARDON?

Just because you did not go to prison, that does not mean you don’t have a conviction. In fact, to the contrary; felony probation is a conviction, just as much as going to prison. The judge could have sentenced you to prison but instead he gave you felony probation. Felony probation is not expungeable, and it is not sealable. (Exception: if you were given “1410 Probation” and that’s usually given to people convicted of Class 4 PCS or Class 4 Prostitution.) Unless you fall into this exception, your only option is to seek a Governor’s pardon.

WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF RECEVING A GOVERNOR’S PARDON?

Your chances of a pardon are as good as the petition you submit: There is no guarantee that your pardon will be granted because the final decision is left up to one person: the Governor. If a pardon is your only option, then you should petition for one; otherwise, the felony conviction is on your record forever. Your chances are as good as your case. If you made one mistake many years ago and since then you haven’t been in trouble, you have gotten a job and have raised a family, then your chances are better than the person who has been arrested several times since the conviction, has no job experience and no education. The better you can present yourself and your case to the IL Prisoner Review Board and the Governor, the better your chance of receiving the pardon. You don't get unless you ask and you have nothing to lose for asking, so ask for that pardon!

HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE GOVERNOR TO DECIDE?

No news is good news. If you haven't heard anything, that means your pardon is sitting on the Governor's desk, waiting for a decision to be made. Ex-Governor Blagojevich left approximately 2600+ on Governor Quinn’s desk. Many people are just like you: waiting for an answer. Until a decision has been made, you cannot even re-petition. The only thing you can do is continue to wait. The Governor has no statute of limitations on how long he can "sit" on the petitions before making a decision. Don't fret; you don't know how many of those petitions are really worthy of a pardon, how many were submitted individually or through an attorney and how many are prisoners asking to be released or people living in society with felony convictions.

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com

Prosecutorial Misconduct Once Again - Senator Ted Stevens The Latest Victim

 Another American injustice - this time the victim was one of our very own American leaders: Senator Ted Stevens. Fortunately, in the end, justice prevailed - Sen. Stevens' conviction was set aside due to obvious prosecutorial misconduct. AG Holder has stated he will dismiss the indictment and is not seeking a new trial.  Article here. In October, Stevens was found guilty of seven counts of lying on Senate ethics forms. Senator Ted Stevens

THE MISCONDUCT

In a nutshell, the government's key witness was Bill Allen, an oil industry exec., who testified that Sen. Stevens failed to disclose over $250,000 in gifts from him on his Senate forms. (Mr. Allen is no angel himself - he pleaded guilty to charges of bribing Alaskan lawmakers, including Ben Stevens, Senator Stevens’s son.)

It wasn't until trial that prosecutors gave Stevens' defense team FBI notes that were not previously disclosed, a clear Brady violation. These notes were handwritten by an agent, Chad Joy, during an interview with Mr. Allen. Mr. Allen told the agent he believed Sen. Stevens would have paid any bills but that the bills were never sent! Article here. Obviously, this information could have helped with Sen. Stevens' defense!

 FBI Agent Mary Beth Kepner - allegedly involved with prosecution's key witness Bill Allen The juiciest part is that another FBI Agent, Mary Beth Kepner, (see picture) was allegedly involved in an "inappropriate relationship" with Mr. Allen.  In fact, she apparently wore a skirt to Stevens' trial the day Mr. Allen testified.  I hope she has nice legs because she surely doesn't look like one of Hef's girls! 

PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT A DISGRACE TO AMERICAN JUSTICE

Lucky for Sen. Stevens, he had a highly paid defense team.  Lucky for the Duke lacrosse players, they had a highly paid defense team.  (Remember their case was dismissed after the prosecutor Mike Nifong withheld key DNA evidence. The ability to pay for a lawyer gives one the ability to fight a case.  But what about the thousands of indigent men and woman (predominantly African American) who cannot afford to fight their case and who are forced to plead guilty?  In Illinois, Governor Ryan pardoned 4 death row inmates stemming from torture allegations by the Chicago Police and prosecutorial misconduct in the criminal cases.  In fact, Gov. Ryan thereafter instituted a moratorium on the death penalty.

Or how about the recent case in Orleans Parish, LA?  The city may have to file for bankruptcy after it lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit against its prosecutors for engaging in misconduct on a death penalty case.

If you turned Sen. Stevens into a poor black man, turned the charges into a murder and turned a private defense team into one public defender, Sen. Stevens would have been forced to plead guilty as charged. I am not trying to be a bleeding heart - the statistics speak for themselves.

It is fundamentally unfair for prosecutors to hold all the cards, cheat and then not be held accountable for their actions.  More judges must hold prosecutors accountable for their actions and prosecutors' offices across the county cannot be afraid to charge their own for engaging in misconduct and withholding evidence. 

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com