Former Cook County judge accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from elderly man faces theft, money laundering charges

by Rebecca Johnson and Madeline Buckley

CHICAGO — A former Cook County judge accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bank accounts of an elderly former Tuskegee Airman to purchase cryptocurrency has been indicted on seven felony counts of theft, money laundering and financial exploitation of an elderly person.

The felony charges were lodged Nov. 9 against Patricia Martin, who stepped down in 2020 as presiding judge in the Child Protection Division of Cook County Circuit Court. She’s allowed to live in Missouri while she awaits her next court date in December, according to court records.

“She had a long and distinguished career, and we expect her to be vindicated,” said Martin’s attorney, Michael Leonard.

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which handles allegations of lawyer misconduct, said in a May 31 fraud complaint that Martin stole from Oscar Wilkerson, an elderly man whose financial affairs she was supposed to manage. They alleged she used the money for her own benefit, including buying more than $100,000 in cryptocurrency in her own name.

Wilkerson died in February at 97.

In total, the attorney discipline complaint alleged Martin took $246,203.80 of Wilkerson’s money during about a two-year period. It also accused her of lying to Wilkerson and his doctor and failing to cooperate with an investigation.

Lawyers for Wilkerson also filed a lawsuit against Martin last year where a judge ordered a $1.1 million default judgment due to Martin’s “continued unresponsiveness” to court hearings and orders. Martin has already been disbarred.

Martin’s attorneys are appealing the default judgment.

Martin filed a motion in July to dismiss the judgment, arguing, among other issues, that Wilkerson’s death in February left the case without a proper plaintiff.

Mary Wisniewski, a spokesperson for Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans’ office, said in a statement that “neither judges nor employees … can comment on pending or impending cases, under Illinois Supreme Court ethical rules.”

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Former Cook County judge accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from elderly man faces theft, money laundering charges

Former judge is disbarred for sexually harassing police officer, court reporter and prosecutor

By Debra Cassens Weiss

A former judge in Chicago has been disbarred after he was accused of trying to kiss a police officer, asking a court reporter about the cost of sex, and making demeaning remarks about a prosecutor.

The former Cook County, Illinois, judge, Judge Mauricio Boris Andres Araujo, was disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court in a Jan. 17 order.

Araujo did not participate in ethics proceedings initiated by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. The allegations were deemed to be admitted.

A Sept. 30, 2022, report by the IARDC hearing board said these allegations were deemed admitted:

• Araujo tried to kiss a Chicago police officer on the lips in 2016 when she tried to obtain a signature on a warrant. He also grabbed her hand and said, “Touch my butt.” He also “made lewd comments” to the officer on another occasion.

• On two occasions in 2011, Araujo “approached a female court reporter in a suggestive manner when they were alone in a courthouse elevator and asked how much money it would take for the court reporter to have sex with him.”

• In 2018, Araujo made demeaning remarks about a prosecutor after she appeared before him in a first-degree murder case. He was unhappy that the prosecutor, a former law school classmate, had not congratulated him on his promotion to a new courtroom and had not said hello to him. He called a different prosecutor into his chambers and began to discuss the perceived slight. Araujo used the B-word when referring to the prosecutor and said, “Maybe it’s because I didn’t have sex with her. Or maybe it’s because I did have sex with her.”

The hearing board said Araujo’s interactions with the police officer and court reporter constituted battery and assault, and his inappropriate sexual remarks constituted conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Araujo had no prior discipline, a mitigating factor. But the hearing panel cited several aggravating factors, including that Araujo abused his position of authority, demonstrated a pattern of misconduct, acted with selfish motives, showed no remorse, and failed to participate in the ethics proceeding.

Araujo had been transferred to administrative duties in September 2018 after a complaint by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. The Illinois Courts Commission had also charged Araujo with ethics violations and concluded that he committed misconduct. He retired from the bench in 2020, a month before the Illinois Courts Commission entered written findings.

Araujo told the Chicago Tribune in 2018 that he didn’t think that he used the B-word to describe the prosecutor and didn’t think that he made the remark that implied they may have had sex. He also said the prosecutor’s failure to acknowledge him did not upset him.

The IARDC has no contact information for Araujo on its website. He did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal request for comment sent to an email address listed in an IARDC document.

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Former judge is disbarred for sexually harassing police officer, court reporter and prosecutor

Oversight board disbars former Livingston County Judge Theresa Brennan

by Ken Palmer

Former Livingston County District Judge Theresa Brennan was disbarred this week, more than a year after pleading guilty to a perjury charge stemming from a lengthy ethics investigation.

Brennan consented to the disciplinary action by the state Attorney Discipline Board, acknowledging the felony conviction.

Former Livingston County
Judge Theresa Brennan

Brennan was removed from the bench in June 2019 after the state Supreme Court found she committed eight instances of misconduct.

The state Attorney Grievance Commission said she failed to disclose her close personal relationships with a former Michigan State Police detective and a local attorney who were involved in cases in her court.

Investigators also said Brennan tampered with evidence in her own divorce case by trying to remove data from a cell phone and then lied about it. They also said she delayed recusing herself from the case so she could dispose of evidence.

Brennan was charged with perjury, misconduct in office and tampering with evidence after a separate, criminal investigation

Her law license was automatically suspended when she pleaded guilty to perjury on Dec. 3, 2019. The other two charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

The former judge was sentenced to 18 months' probation, including six months in jail, and 200 hours of community service. She served almost all of her jail sentence before being released in June 2020.

A focus of the ethics investigation was Brennan's close relationship with a state police detective who led the investigation into the murders of Richard and Brenda Kowalski.

Brennan presided over a jury trial for Richard's brother, Jerome Kowalski, who was convicted in connection with the murders in 2013. 

Those convictions were overturned in light of the ethics allegations and criminal charges against Brennan. Jerome Kowalski is awaiting a new trial.

The order of disbarment is effective March 18. 

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Oversight board disbars former Livingston County Judge Theresa Brennan

Pa. Supreme Court panel disbars Thomas Nocella, former Phila. judge

Former Judge Thomas M. Nocella

Former Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas M. Nocella, who was removed from the bench after being found to have committed numerous misdeeds, now has lost his law license, the state Supreme Court announced Tuesday.

The decision is the latest action against Nocella, 71. In 2013, he was permanently barred from holding a judgeship for a variety of reasons, including failing to disclose to the Philadelphia Bar Association such things as judgments against him and his troubles with the city ethics board.

In revoking his law license, the Supreme Court's disciplinary board said Nocella's "transgressions offend both the public and the bar and bring disrepute to the profession." The board also cited a case in which he collected $1,875 for work in a divorce case that he never performed.

Neither Nocella nor his lawyer, Samuel Stretton, could be reached for comment Tuesday.

The disbarment takes effect Nov. 19, but the phone to Nocella's law office, at 4000 Gypsy Lane in East Falls, has already been disconnected.

A longtime Democratic City Committee insider and associate of U.S. Rep. Robert Brady (D., Pa.), Nocella was appointed in 2008 as an interim Municipal Court judge by then-Gov. Ed Rendell.

In 2011, he ran a successful campaign to become a Common Pleas Court judge.

In that campaign, he had sought the coveted "recommended" rating from the Philadelphia Bar Association. To win the rating, the Court of Judicial Discipline later found, he committed serious violations. It said Nocella failed to disclose that he faced $1.7 million in liens and judgments. He also did not give the bar association details on a city Board of Ethics contempt citation over his representation of a political action fund connected to Carol Ann Campbell, a late city councilwoman, ward leader, and secretary of the Democratic City Committee.

After his election in November 2011, The Inquirer reported that Nocella had been embroiled in a dispute over a 2005 sale of property belonging to Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6627 in Manayunk. In a deposition taken as part of a lawsuit, Nocella admitted that he received $60,000 in legal fees after falsely claiming he was the secretary of the post when he was not even a member.

Nocella began serving as a Common Pleas Court judge in January 2012.

Documents released Tuesday said Nocella collected $1,875 to handle a woman's divorce case just before his 2011 election to Common Pleas Court. He did not file the necessary paperwork in the divorce case and did not return the fee, despite the woman's attempts to obtain repayment.

In March 2013, the woman filed a disciplinary complaint against Nocella. Three months later, Nocella repaid the money, the disciplinary board found.

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Pa. Supreme Court panel disbars Thomas Nocella, former Phila. judge

Ex-Judge Nocella Disbarred by State Supreme Court

Former Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Thomas Nocella has been disbarred by the state Supreme Court more than two years after his removal from office.

The justices adopted the report and recommendation of the Disciplinary Board, which claimed Nocella failed to disclose in questionnaires from the Philadelphia Bar Association Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention that he had been a defendant or respondent in 24 cases.

Nocella was reviewed by the bar commission in 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2011. In 2011, Nocella was nominated by the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee to fill a judicial vacancy that had arisen between the spring primary and the general election in the fall.

The board said Nocella, when seeking an updated evaluation by the bar commission in 2011, did not disclose that he had filed for bankruptcy; that he had been found in contempt in a Board of Ethics case; that the Internal Revenue Service had filed liens against him for $358,961 and $110,748; that a judgment was entered against Nocella for $923,152 in favor of Czarnecki Profit Sharing; and that a judgment of $306,174 was entered against Nocella in favor of Casimir Czarnecki.

Additionally, the board said Nocella neglected a client's divorce matter when he was elected to the bench in 2011. Nocella had filed a divorce complaint on behalf of Marta Maciuk, but did not inform her that he had become a judge and could no longer work on her case.

"Respondent's neglect of his client Marta Maciuk's divorce matter must not be overlooked. Respondent basically ignored Ms. Maciuk once he was elected as judge in November of 2011," the Disciplinary Board's report said.

Nocella's attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, did not return a call seeking comment.

The board's report said Nocella expressed remorse for his actions, but tried to minimize the misconduct by focusing on the repercussions in his own life.

"In discussing how he had changed, respondent testified that he was 'paying for [his] mistakes' and that he had 'come a long way from being a common pleas court judge to being out of work. So, you're going from someone who was making $200,000 a year to someone who was making $2,000 a month. That's the—honestly, it's that kind of change. Your positions change. Whatever status you had is lost. A lot of my friends have left me,'" the report said.

The report said Nocella was cooperative throughout the proceedings and recognized his wrongdoings.

However, the board noted, "The matters herein are serious and aggravated by the fact that respondent was a judge and held to a heightened standard. Respondent's transgressions offend both the public and the bar and bring disrepute to the profession. Under the circumstances, we unanimously recommend that respondent be disbarred from the practice of law."

In 2013, the Court of Judicial Discipline found Nocella violated the state constitution in the handling of a case in which he was found in contempt of court while working as a lawyer for a political action committee, in addition to failing to disclose the cases in which he was a litigant. The Supreme Court ousted Nocella from the bench based on those findings.

"We believe it to be beyond dispute that a judge—or one who would be a judge—who is willing to lie—and in official documents ... is not one who can be expected to encourage, indeed to insist that truth be spoken in his courtroom," Judge Robert J. Colville said in the opinion for the court in June 2013. "This respondent's relationship with truth and his regard for its importance in his everyday life is gruelingly illustrated" in the instance regarding the political action committee.

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Ex-Judge Nocella Disbarred by State Supreme Court