Crain's Chicago Business reports:
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier has been ordered to give testimony in a civil case that accuses State Farm Insurance of fraudulently concealing the extent of its involvement in his campaign.There's more:
Karmeier and State Farm had fought against requiring the justice to give a deposition in the case, which was filed in 2012 in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis and seeks $8 billion in damages. But Judge David Herndon rejected those arguments.
The plaintiffs can question Karmeier under oath “as to his knowledge concerning all aspects of his campaign including his decision-making process for running for the position in the first place and the persons with whom he consulted to make that decision, how the campaign was managed, how the campaign was financed, who was involved in the decision-making and strategy of the campaign,” Herndon ruled yesterday. “Without allowing the inquiry, there will never be light on the facts of this case and the federal rules will be thwarted.”
Requiring judges to give testimony is rare, even more so when the questions pertain to their own elections. The ruling likely will add to controversy that swirls around Karmeier, whose alleged ties to the Bloomington-based insurer and to the parent of Philip Morris USA, which has a multibillion-dollar case before the state Supreme Court, have drawn harsh criticism from plaintiffs' lawyers. Questions about his ties also demonstrate the flaws in allowing voters to choose judges in increasingly expensive campaigns, according to opponents of judicial elections.Yes, it's rare. But, Illinois has a major "ethics" problem to say the least. You'll want to read the entire Crain's and New Geography articles.
Herndon also granted the plaintiffs' request to depose an attorney for State Farm, Robert Schultz, who served as a member of the judicial evaluation committee for the Illinois State Bar Association when Karmeier was elected to the Illinois high court in 2004. Schultz now works for State Farm.
