Last fall, an exoneree who is now employed by a high-profile law group was sitting in a Cook County courtroom with a cellphone, court documents say, when a deputy asked him to step outside to ask about the device.
That’s when, a motion alleges, Judge Peggy Chiampas “began screaming loudly from the bench ‘bring him in, bring him in, bring him in.’ After questioning him in chambers, Chiampas wrote an order that banned Robert Almodovar, who was issued a certificate of innocence in 2018, from the Leighton Criminal Court Building, an unusual move in a public building with a mandate for transparent court proceedings.
Now, Almodovar, through his attorney, is contesting the ban and asking that a judge other than Chiampas hear the matter, which has spurred a bizarre, months-long process in which the matter has been tossed around to multiple judges who seem reluctant to touch the issue and roped in assistant state’s attorneys, even though there are no criminal or contempt of court charges.
“Here, the state has not leveled any charges against Mr. Almodovar,” said Judge Neera Walsh during a hearing on Thursday. “The court believes it lacks jurisdiction.”
Walsh dismissed a pending motion to substitute Chiampas in the matter and suggested to Almodovar’s attorney Steve Greenberg that he appear before Chiampas next week.
The chief judge’s office declined to comment, and a message left in Chiampas’ chambers was not returned.
The dispute began more than nine months ago during an Oct. 4, 2023 court call presided over by Chiampas.
Almodovar was in Chiampas’ courtroom as an observer, according to a motion to vacate the ban filed in March, but had work-related responsibilities in the building that day, including dropping off court documents and making inquiries at the clerk’s office. Almodovar is employed by the Bonjean Law Group, owned by Jennifer Bonjean, an attorney who has litigated wrongful conviction cases in Cook County and has been involved in a number of highly-publicized cases.
Chiampas is named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by Bonjean that alleges misconduct on the part of police, prosecutors and the judge in connection with the handling of a case against men who were previously accused of killing Chicago police officer Clifton Lewis in December 2011.
In a statement, Bonjean said the order is “illegal. Full stop,” and added that the ban has left Almodovar unable to do his work, as he advocates for the wrongly convicted as a law clerk for Bonjean and other firms.
“Judge Chiampas then stripped him of that, banning him from the criminal court building in a secret order that was not entered on any docket or even provided to Mr. Almodovar himself,” she said. “Judges cannot ban citizens from public buildings, even if they think (wrongly) that the citizen has violated some administrative order.”
During the court call, someone informed a deputy that Almodovar had a cell phone in the courtroom, so the deputy asked him to go into the hallway and informed him he would need to lock his phone downstairs, where members of the public generally have to secure any electronics. Almodovar replied that he believed he was authorized to have the phone as a law firm employee, but said he would comply nonetheless, the motion said.
Before he could do so, Chiampas called out from the bench and confiscated his phone “without determining whether Robert had the authority to have a cell phone in his possession,” the motion said. She told him to sit, and said she would hold him in criminal contempt of court if he left the courtroom.
“The judge never determined if Robert could possess the cell phone within the courthouse; she just assumed he could not – apparently Robert did not look like someone who would be allowed to have a phone,” the motion said.
The motion contended that Chiampas “illegally detained” Almodovar in the courtroom for four hours because he was not free to leave without being held in contempt. She told him if he consented to a search of his phone, he could avoid a criminal charge, the motion said.
“Not wanting to go to jail, which for Robert is particularly traumatic having been a victim of a wrongful conviction, he allowed the coerced search,” the motion said.
Almodovar, whose case rested on eyewitness reports obtained in part by disgraced Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, had his conviction overturned in 2017.
Chiampas interrogated him, according to the motion, then banned him from the building and threatened him with incarceration if he returned.
The motion to lift the ban argues that it is unlawful for a number of reasons, including that the courthouse is a public space, and that Chiampas does not have the authority to implement bans. The motion says that judges are allowed to maintain decorum in their courtrooms with charges of contempt of court, but no such charges have been initiated for Almodovar.
Greenberg, who represents Almodovar, has sought to have the matter heard before a different judge, and the case has bounced between Chiampas, Walsh, Judge Kenneth Wadas and Presiding Judge Erica Reddick.
“It is obvious that judges in this building have some reluctance to wade into this matter,” said a motion on the issue filed in June.
During a short hearing Thursday, Greenberg argued that Chiampas is prejudiced in the matter, and is also a witness.
“She’s not in a position to resolve this matter,” he said.
Still, Walsh determined she did not have authority, given no criminal charges have been filed.
The matter will likely again be heard before Chiampas next week.