A Cook County judge who controversially banned a law clerk from the county’s main courthouse for using a cell phone in her courtroom will undergo training and mentoring, officials said.
The order comes after an executive committee convened by Chief Judge Tim Evans investigated the nine-month courthouse ban implemented by Judge Peggy Chiampas for Robert Almodovar, an exoneree who was issued a certificate of innocence in 2018 and now clerks for a high-profile law group.
The ban was criticized as unlawful by Almodovar’s employer, defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean, and his attorney, Steve Greenberg, who filed a motion asking for it to be lifted. Almodovar regularly had duties in the Southwest Side’s Leighton Criminal Court Building, including dropping off court documents and making inquiries at the clerk’s office, but had to pause his work there while fighting the ban.
“The Circuit Court is committed to ensuring our courtrooms operate in accordance with the law and we will continue to update our policies, orders and trainings as needed to best serve Cook County,” Evans said in a news release.
Chiampas will undergo training with Judge Erica Reddick, presiding judge of the criminal division, regarding “the enforcement of administrative orders governing the use of cellphones and other electronic devices in courtrooms,” according to the release.
The executive committee also clarified some long-confusing courthouse rules around cell phones, ordering that members of the media be allowed to use electronic devices in the courtroom to take notes and communicate with colleagues outside of court.
The dispute began on Oct. 4, 2023 when Almodovar was observing proceedings in Chiampas’ courtroom.
During the court call, someone informed a deputy that Almodovar had a cellphone in the courtroom, so the deputy asked him to go into the hallway and told 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, according to a motion that sought to reverse the ban.
That’s when, the motion alleged, 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 Almodovar from the courthouse, an unusual move in a public building with a mandate for transparent court proceedings.
The motion contended that Chiampas illegally detained Almodovar in her courtroom for several hours and argued that she did not have the authority to bar him from a public building. Judges are allowed to maintain decorum in their courtrooms with charges of contempt of court, the motion said, but no such charges were ever initiated.
After it was filed, the motion bounced around among several judges who seemed reluctant to wade into the matter. Greenberg had sought to substitute Chiampas from making a decision because of her involvement in the issue.
Eventually, after multiple hearings before other judges, the motion landed back in front of Chiampas, who rescinded the ban earlier this month in a terse, one-sentence ruling.
Almodovar, whose case rested on eyewitness reports obtained in part by disgraced Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, had his conviction overturned in 2017.
