Attorney Convicted Of Home Invasion Consents To Disbarment
A convicted attorney has filed a consent to disbarment in Illinois.
On December 3, 2014, Movant was formally charged by way of indictment in the Circuit Court of the 19th Judicial Circuit in Lake County with the offenses of home invasion, aggravated discharge of a firearm, reckless discharge of a firearm, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and criminal trespass to residence in the matter of People of the State of Illinois v. Raymond Clutts, docket number 14 CF 3091. Count Two of that indictment charged Movant with home invasion, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/19-6(a)(3). Count Three of that indictment charged Movant with aggravated discharge of a firearm, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/24-1.2(a)(2).
On February 23, 2017, Movant entered into a voluntary plea of guilty to an amended Count Two, which charged him with attempt home invasion, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/8-4, and Count Three, aggravated discharge of a firearm. As part of the plea agreement, Movant stipulated that a trier of fact could find Movant guilty of attempt home invasion and aggravated discharge of a firearm, based on testimony from Movant’s daughter and former spouse that the women lived at a home in Hawthorne Woods, and that in the early evening hours of November 7, 2014, while both women were at home, Movant entered their home while armed with a firearm and threatened them with the imminent use of force while inside their home.
Movant further stipulated that if those witnesses were called, they would testify that while in the house he discharged a firearm in the direction of his former spouse.
On February 23, 2017, Judge Victoria Rossetti sentenced Movant to nine years and 11 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections on the amended Count Two, attempt home invasion, and 48 months of felony probation with standard conditions of probation on Count Three, aggravated discharge of a firearm, to be served consecutive to amended Count Two.
The Chicago Tribune covered the criminal case.
The incident leading to the charges against Clutts began when police received a 911 call reporting multiple gunshots fired at his ex-wife’s Hawthorn Woods home.
According to authorities, Clutts fired a gun in the home several times when his wife and a child were present.
When police arrived, an officer discharged his weapon but did not strike Clutts, police said, and officers then took him into custody. A gun was recovered at the scene.
The occupants of the house had fled to a neighbor’s residence after Clutts began firing the shots, police said. Officials said Clutts was able to enter the home through an unlocked door.
(Mike Frisch)