Joan Lefkow | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lefkow in 2019 | |
| Senior Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | |
| Assumed office September 1, 2012 | |
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | |
| In office July 11, 2000 – September 1, 2012 | |
| Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Ann Claire Williams |
| Succeeded by | Manish S. Shah |
| Bankruptcy Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | |
| In office 1997–2000 | |
| Magistrate Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | |
| In office 1982–1997 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joan Marilyn Humphrey (1944-01-08)January 8, 1944 (age 81) Nemaha County, Kansas, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | Wheaton College (AB) Northwestern University (JD) |
Joan Marilyn Humphrey Lefkow (born January 8, 1944) is aseniorUnited States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Lefkow was born inNemaha County, Kansas. She attendedWheaton College in Illinois, where she received anArtium Baccalaureus degree, and obtained herJuris Doctor(J.D.) atNorthwestern University School of Law in 1971. After graduation, she became alaw clerk for JudgeThomas E. Fairchild of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
From 1972 to 1975, Lefkow was a staff attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. After that, she served as an administrative law judge for theIllinois Fair Employment Practices Commission from 1975 to 1979. She was an instructor atUniversity of Miami School of Law in 1980 and 1981 before becoming the executive director of theCook County Legal Assistance Foundation from 1981 to 1982.
From 1982 to 1997 she was aUnited States magistrate judge, and from 1997 to 2000 aUnited States Bankruptcy Judge of the Northern District of Illinois.[1]
Lefkow was nominated by PresidentBill Clinton on May 11, 2000, to a seat on theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by JudgeAnn Claire Williams, and confirmed by theUnited States Senate on June 30, 2000. She received her commission on July 11, 2000.[1] Lefkow assumedsenior status on September 1, 2012.[1]
In May 2000, Judge Lefkow presided over the enforcement of a high-profiletrademark infringement case against theWorld Church of the Creator (WCOTC), an organization run bywhite supremacist leaderMatthew F. Hale. TheOregon-basedTE-TA-MA Truth Foundation—described by theSouthern Poverty Law Center as "a peace-loving, multicultural church"—sued Hale's church for using the name "Church of the Creator."[2] WCOTC argued against the validity of the suit because Hale's church had been using the name since 1973, but the Foundation had trademarked it in 1987, and no contest was filed against the trademark within a five-year period, making their ownership legally incontestable.[2] In January 2002, Lefkow ruled in favor of Hale, but her decision was overturned on appeal. On July 25, Lefkow ruled against Hale, saying that his church infringed the Church of the Creator's trademark. (Hale's organization has since been renamed theCreativity Movement.)[2]
Aninjunction was issued on November 19 forbidding Hale's church from using the term "Church of the Creator."[2] Hale's World Church of the Creator was ordered to stop using the name on theInternet, and to remove or cover up the phrase "Church of the Creator" on all of Hale's publications and products. In response to this decision, Hale sued Lefkow on December 24, claiming that her order violated the Constitution in requiring the "destruction" of the group's bibles.[3] At around the same time, threats were made against Lefkow on the Internet, and her home address, and family photographs of her husband and children, were posted on theStormfront website.[4]
Meanwhile, an undercoverFBI informant, posing as Hale's "security" chief, taped a conversation with Hale where he asked about Lefkow's home address, and discussed her impending "extermination."[5] On January 8, 2003, Hale was arrested on charges of plotting to murder Lefkow. The FBI informant in that trial received several death threats, and Lefkow initially was protected by a detail of theUnited States Marshals Service.[6]
On April 24, Judge Lefkow ruled that the Creativity Movement had failed to stop using the name "World Church of the Creator," and should be fined $1,000 a day until it complied.[7]
On April 6, 2005, Hale was sentenced to a 40-year prison term for soliciting the undercover FBI informant to kill Judge Lefkow. His conviction and sentence were affirmed in 2006. A subsequent application to void them, on grounds including ineffective assistance of counsel, was rejected, and his appeal from that decision was affirmed on March 5, 2013.[8] In a separate proceeding, sympathizerBill White was convicted and sentenced to prison for threatening the life of the foreman of the jury that convicted Hale in Judge Lefkow's courtroom, although the conviction was overturned on appeal.[9]
On February 28, 2005, Lefkow returned home to find the bodies of both her husband and mother in the basement of her home on theNorth Side ofChicago. According to an anonymous federal source, both Michael Francis Lefkow, 64, and Donna Grace Glenn Humphrey, 89, had been shot multiple times. The Cook County medical examiner's office stated that the victims were killed with.22 caliber shots to the head. No weapon was found at the scene, but two .22-caliber casings were recovered; evidence of a break-in was found as well. Initial suspicions focused on the possibility that hate groups were involved. On March 4, the FBI announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification of anyone involved in the slayings.[10]
On March 8, investigators announced that DNA samples had been obtained from a cigarette butt found inside the kitchen sink. Further evidence was recovered in and around the home, including a fingerprint, a bloody footprint, and a soda can.[11] Lefkow and her children were again placed under the protection of theUnited States Marshals Service.[12]
On May 18, 2005, Judge Lefkow testified before theU.S. Congress on the problem of providing security for judges, placing some of the blame for the attack on her family on rhetoric against judges issued by persons such asPat Robertson.[13]Neo-Nazi radio host andFBI informantHal Turner asserted[when?] that comments of his (which called for Lefkow's death) may have inspired the murders.[14]
On March 10, 2005, theChicago Police Department and federal agents announced a possible break in the case. According to investigators, a van was stopped during a traffic stop inWest Allis, Wisconsin, at 6:00 p.m. on March 9. As West Allis police officer Rick Orlowski approached the vehicle, the driver, identified as 57-year-old Polish electrician Bart Allen Ross (born Bartilomiej Ciszewski), shot and killed himself. Later that night, a suicide note was found in the car, confessing to the murders of Lefkow's husband and mother, allegedly providing details about the crimes which would have been known only to the actual murderer.[15] Ross had been a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case that Lefkow had dismissed. Investigators found over three hundred .22 caliber shells in the vehicle, casings of the same caliber that were found in the Lefkow home.[16] DNA evidence from Ross allegedly matched the cigarette butt found in Lefkow's home. Ross sent a handwritten letter toWMAQ-TV describing breaking into the Lefkow home with a plan to kill the judge.[17]
Financially stable, with a house, prior to contracting a rare mouth cancer, Ross underwent multiple surgeries and treatments. These completely cured his cancer, but left him massively disfigured, in constant pain, financially wiped out with deep debt, and living in his van. His attempts to sue the medical system may have been intended to jump-start the remainder of his life, but with no actual case of wrongdoing, they were inevitably dismissed.[18]
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois 2000–2012 | Succeeded by |
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