Suspension For Former Assistant Attorney General
A recent sanction of the Illinois Supreme Court
Mr. Win, who was licensed in 2012, was suspended for one year. While serving as an Assistant Illinois Attorney General, he made a false statement to a federal judge by claiming that he had notified a witness to appear for a hearing when, in fact, he had not sent notification to the witness. He then created and back-dated a letter to support his false claim, and he repeated the false statement to his supervisor. He later filed a false affidavit repeating the claim and made false statements to the ARDC by again claiming that he had notified the witness about the hearing. The suspension is effective on October 13, 2016.
From the motion for consent discipline
As an Assistant Attorney General, Respondent was assigned to represent two corrections officers at Pontiac Correctional Center who had been sued by an inmate. The Mintor case was assigned to the Honorable Joe Billy McDade, U.S. District Judge in the Central District of Illinois. On October 14, 2014, Judge McDade ordered the Warden of Pontiac Correctional Center to produce records in advance of the next scheduled hearing on November 12, 2014, or to appear at the hearing that day. Judge McDade ordered Respondent to notify the Warden about his order. Respondent did not forward the order to the Warden or anyone else at Pontiac Correctional Center, nor did Respondent notify the Warden or his office about the order.
At the November 12, 2014 hearing, Respondent falsely told Judge McDade that he had forwarded a copy of the order to the litigation coordinator at Pontiac Correctional Center. Following the hearing, Judge McDade directed the United States Attorney’s Office to determine whether the Warden should be held in contempt of court for willfully disobeying a court order in the Mintor case.
C. Misrepresentation to a supervisor and creation of a false letter
After returning from federal court on November 12, 2014, Respondent created a letter on Attorney General stationary addressed to the litigation coordinator at Pontiac Correctional Center concerning the November 12, 2014 hearing in the Mintor case. Respondent back-dated the letter to October 22, 2014, to make it appear as though he created and sent the letter on that date. The following morning, Respondent showed the letter to his supervisor at the Attorney General’s Office and falsely represented that he drafted and sent the letter in October.
D. False affidavit
On November 21, 2014, Respondent filed an affidavit in the Mintor case in response to a request from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In the affidavit, Respondent stated that he had prepared a letter to the litigation coordinator on October 22, 2014, concerning Judge McDade’s order in the Mintor case; that he assumed the letter had been mailed on that date; and that he assumed the Warden had received notice of the November 12, 2014 hearing, by way of that letter. Respondent knew these statements were false because he didn’t prepare the letter until November 12, 2014, and he knew that he had not notified the Warden of the November 12, 2014 hearing and he had no reason to believe anyone else had done so.
E. False statements to ARDC
On March 25, 2015, the Administrator docketed an investigation against Respondent after receiving a report about Respondent’s conduct from the Attorney General’s Office. On April 24, 2015, Respondent sent a letter to the Administrator which falsely stated that he had drafted and prepared the letter to the Warden in the Mintor case on October 22, 2014.
On August 4, 2015, Respondent appeared at the ARDC office and gave sworn testimony concerning his actions in the Mintor case. In the sworn statement, Respondent testified falsely that he had created and sent the letter to the Warden’s office on October 22, 2014.
On August 31, 2015, Respondent submitted a “revised” response to the ARDC’s report in which he admitted that his previous letter and sworn testimony contained intentionally false statements.
The order was posted on September 22. (Mike Frisch)