Recused

For the past year and a half I have become intimately acquainted with the topic of inmate abuse at the Cook County Jail. I know that inmate abuse occurs, that it gets covered up, and that guards who complain about it get retaliated against. What I didn't know was the depths that the damn defense attorneys would sink to in trying to prove that none of that actually happens.

3 years into a contentious lawsuit, a month before trial, and while summary judgment motions were being considered by the judge, the Sheriff and his legal henchman sought to have the judge recused. And today they succeeded. On a practical level that means that the judge steps down from the case and that a new judge will be assigned. Both sides will have to expend considerable time and resources bringing the new judge up to speed on the details and legal merits of the case. And if settlement doesn't occur, we'll go to trial with a new judge.

I am disgusted and disheartened. Disgusted at defense counsels' tactics. Disheartened at all the work that has built up to this anticlimax. But also invigorated with that peculiar brand of righteous indignation that comes from knowing that you are right and you have been wronged.