Pro Se Attorney Convicted And Suspended: Johnnie Cochran Analogy Rejected
The web page of the Illinois ARDC reports a recent order of the state Supreme Court
Mr. Gold-Smith, who was licensed in 2003, was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court. He was found guilty in the Circuit Court of Will County of solicitation of murder for hire and for solicitation, both Class X felonies. In addition, he is awaiting trial on state charges of aggravated domestic battery (a Class 2 felony), aggravated battery (a Class 3 felony) and unlawful violation of an order of protection (a Class A misdemeanor).
The Chicago Tribune had a story
A Will County judge Tuesday ruled that former Homer Glen attorney Robert Gold-Smith was guilty of trying to hire someone to kill his ex-wife in 2012.
“I’ve spent close to 30 hours of considering all the evidence,” Judge Daniel Rozak told Gold-Smith in the courtroom. “The bottom line is I’m finding guilty.”
Gold-Smith, who represented himself during the trial, had argued that it wasn’t his voice recorded by inmate Brian McDaniel, who wore a wire in the Will County Jail during a conversation about the murder-for-hire plot on Oct. 3, 2012.
The defendant had been in jail in connection with a 2010 charge of aggravated domestic battery, when witnesses had said he followed his wife out of a Will County courtroom after a divorce hearing and punched her several times.
During his closing arguments last month, Gold-Smith said, “If the voice doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” using a line similar to one used by O.J. Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran in referring to a bloody glove the former football player was alleged to have worn.
Rozak on Tuesday acknowledged that an expert could not definitively identify whose voice was on the 2012 recording, but he also considered video surveillance footage from a camera in the cell block which he said was located right above McDaniel’s cell.
“The camera couldn’t be better positioned,” the judge said.
After the verdict, Rozak gave Gold-Smith the opportunity to request a public defender to handle his future options in the case, such as filing a motion for the judge to reconsider his finding.
Gold-Smith, who cast his head down and shook his head after the verdict, said he would now like a public defender.
Rozak told public defender Amy Christensen, who was in the courtroom, that she will likely need more than 30 days to review all the evidence, but set the next court hearing for April 1 for the potential filing of the motion for him to reconsider his verdict.
The judge suggested Gold-Smith “do yourself a big favor” and request a public defender for the pending 2010 aggravated domestic battery charge.
Gold-Smith also faces a charge of trying to bribe McDaniel in 2015 to change his testimony.
Assistant State’s Attorney Adam Capelli said Gold-Smith faces 20 to 40 years in prison on all the charges, and must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence.
Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Gold-Smith told Rozak his motions to introduce new evidence and reconsider the case will move faster than if an assistant public defender had to review everything.
“[Solicitation of murder] is a mandatory minimum of 20 years at 85 percent and you’re worried about a couple of months?” Rozak asked. The judge then “apologized in advance” and offered a frank assessment of Gold-Smith’s criminal defense as “not only ineffective, you’re inept.”
Before his arrest Gold-Smith worked as a bankruptcy attorney.
“If I told you I needed heart surgery, you’d refer me to a gynecologist. You’d say what’s the difference, they’re both doctors,” Rozak said. “If you could sue yourself for ineffective assistance [of counsel] you’d have a dead-bang winner.”
Rozak said Gold-Smith’s decision to represent himself despite his lack of experience in criminal law was “the best thing the state had going for it” with a weak case.
“If you’d sat there, shut up and kept quiet, maybe – just maybe – my decision would’ve been different, but every hole that was in their case – you filled in,” the judge concluded.
Gold-Smith said Rozak wants “to personally oversee this conviction to gratify [his] ego.”
The former bankruptcy attorney also believes the judge felt obligated to protect the reputations of investigators and prosecutors he believes were duped by McDaniel.
“It’s not only politics but your Machiavellian prejudices that convicted me the day I set foot in your courtroom. You knew that recording was fabricated,” Gold-Smith told the judge.
After the bench trial, Rozak estimated he spent 30 hours listening to the tapes submitted as evidence.
“Why have you railroaded me?” Gold-Smith asked. “Your sadistic determination to send people to prison, regardless of their innocence?”
“You, sir, are an anachronism. A throwback to the tyrannical kings, despots and dictators,” he said. “The Spanish Inquisition would’ve been more appropriate for your [distribution] of justice, or should I say, injustice.”
Gold-Smith continued his statement to the court by accusing Rozak of anti-Semitism because of his last name, although Gold-Smith is not Jewish.
(Mike Frisch)