Judge won't be disciplined for threatening to jail law clerk who brought cellphone to court

A panel of Cook County judges has decided not to discipline an associate judge who repeatedly threatened to jail a law clerk she accused of improperly bringing a cellphone into her courtroom last fall.

The circuit court's Executive Committee met twice this month to determine whether Judge Peggy Chiampas violated ethics rules when she threatened Robert Almodovar with jail time and banned him from the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in an order that was never made part of the court record.

The committee, comprised of presiding judges, chose not to impose any discipline. The judges also decided on Monday not to refer the matter to the state's Judicial Inquiry Board, which investigates allegations of misconduct by judges, several people with knowledge of the decision said.

Chiampas will keep her current courtroom assignment but will have to receive additional training and mentoring "regarding the enforcement of administrative orders," Chief Judge Timothy Evans said in a statement.

Earlier this summer, the committee referred allegations to the inquiry board that Kathy Flanagan, acting presiding judge of the Law Division, had an attorney removed from her courtroom and detained after he argued with her during a hearing.

Flanagan was also not removed from her courtroom assignment, but other judges whose cases have been referred to the inquiry board have been reassigned pending an investigation.

Judge William Hooks was reassigned after he was accused of making racist comments during a conference in chambers. He retired this year. Judge Raul Vega was also reassigned over comments he made to a colleague following a referral.

Anyone is allowed to file a complaint with the inquiry board, and a referral is not necessary for the board to begin an investigation on its own.

The inquiry board does not confirm whether it has received a complaint, an agency spokesman said. Complaints become public if a decision is made to file formal charges with the Illinois Courts Commission. Judges can also resign to end an investigation and to avoid punishment by the commission if they believe they will face a negative outcome.

Almodovar was observing a public hearing on Oct. 4 in Chiampas’ third-floor courtroom at the courthouse in Little Village when he was approached by a sheriff’s deputy who asked if he had a cellphone in his possession.

Almodovar said he did.

He was at the courthouse working as a law clerk and told the deputy he believed he was allowed to possess a phone, but offered to put the phone in public lockers downstairs.

Before he could, Chiampas began shouting from the bench to bring him before her.

Members of the public are generally not allowed to possess a cellphone at the criminal courthouse by order of the court, which cites potential concerns of witness and juror intimidation among the reasons.

Still, broad exceptions are made for police, courthouse employees, members of the media, attorneys and their employees.

The judge threatened Almodovar repeatedly with six months in jail unless he allowed a sheriff’s deputy to search his phone.

The experience was traumatizing, Almodovar told the Sun-Times.

Before becoming a law clerk, he spent more than two decades in prison for a double murder that he didn’t commit. He was eventually exonerated and received a certificate of innocence in 2018.

Chiampas appeared to be at least somewhat familiar with his case, suggesting at one point that she had recused herself from his post-conviction case.

Chiampas is also being sued in federal court by Almodovar’s employer, attorney Jennifer Bonjean, over alleged misconduct by the judge, police officers and prosecutors in a case involving two men who were previously accused of killing an off-duty Chicago police officer.

Even though a deputy found nothing unlawful on Almodovar’s phone, Chiampas ordered the contents of the phone documented and said she was banning him from the public building unless he was ordered to appear or otherwise given permission.

But a copy was never given to Almodovar and it wasn’t recorded by the clerk’s office. When he asked for a copy, he said he was denied.

Chiampas lifted the ban without addressing it during a terse hearing on Aug. 8. Sources said Almodovar’s attorney had made multiple attempts to have Chiampas — and other judges in the building — lift the ban for months.

Evans told the Sun-Times in an interview that he learned of the incident earlier this summer and has since taken steps to clarify who was allowed to authorize employees of attorneys to carry cellphones in the building.

In 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court asked circuit courts to clarify their cellphone policies in writing, while also encouraging courts to allow people to keep their phones inside courthouses.