Rep. Eddie Washington, a freshman member of
the Illinois General Assembly, is requesting a written apology from
Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s office for what he
describes as rude and unprofessional treatment after his May 16
court appearance.
Washington, a Democrat representing District
60, just north of Chicago, appeared in court on a traffic ticket
charging him with following a Sangamon County sheriff’s
deputy too closely. Another ticket issued at the same 1:30 a.m.
traffic stop charged Washington with having his windows tinted too
dark, but was dismissed when he presented a doctor’s order
prescribing the tint for a vision problem. In court, Washington was
found not guilty of the remaining charge.
The trouble began after the trial, when
Washington went to the lower level of the courthouse to retrieve
his AAA card. Washington and his staff assistant, Rene Corso,
stepped into the same elevator as Molly Mack, the assistant
state’s attorney Washington had just faced in the trial. A
tense conversation begun in the elevator continued as they all
disembarked into a public lobby.
“[Mack] was so loud, it embarrassed
me,” Washington says. He decided to report this treatment to
the state’s attorney.
“If she treats me this way and I’m
in a beautiful suit and tie and I’m a lawmaker, I’m not
going to walk out of this building and accept it,” Washington
says.
“That means you’re treating everybody
else like dogs.”
But when he got to the state’s
attorney’s office, the tension escalated. Washington says he
asked a clerk to write down the state’s attorney’s
name, and was trying to recall Mack’s name when she walked in
and said, “It’s Mack, like Mack Truck.”
In a three-page letter Washington sent to
State’s Attorney John Schmidt, Washington describes the
ensuing fracas as “a frenzy of hostile escalation similar to
a lynch mob.” One employee, he says, told him: “We
don’t care nothing about you being no state
representative.”
Office employees pushed a button that summoned
court security officers, including the same officer who had been
present during Washington’s trial. The officers cleared the
room, and Washington says he suddenly found himself alone, facing
three armed men, and totally “unnerved.”
Just then, Lt. Jerry Durr, the deputy in
charge of court security, arrived, and apparently defused the
situation.
“I told everybody to go back to where
they belonged so I could talk to Mr. Washington,” Durr says.
“He told me his story, I listened, he shook my hand, thanked
me, and left.”
Washington waited four days to write his
letter, outlining his complaint. But as of June 1, he has received
no response from Schmidt’s office.
“I have the letter and I will send him a
letter,” Schmidt says, adding that he was busy with a trial
last week. “I certainly believe our office acts
professionally every day, and we always do and will continue to do
so. That’s my quote for you.”
Mack recently left the state’s
attorney’s office due to her husband’s employment in
another state.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2005.
