Illinois lawmakers to get new top watchdog with ‘strong background in sexual harassment’

Dec. 18--An ethics expert and former central Illinois judge is set to be the Illinois General Assembly's next top watchdog, filling a role that came under increased scrutiny amid a flood of sexual harassment complaints at the Capitol since late last year.

Former federal prosecutor Julie Porter was picked for the legislative inspector general job in the fall of last year to deal with a backlog of more than two dozen ethics complaints that piled up in the three years that state lawmakers left the post vacant.

Now a state ethics panel has picked Carol Pope, a former judge and former Menard County state's attorney, to take over in March, a timetable Porter requested to finish her work, Legislative Ethics Commission chair and Republican state Rep. Avery Bourne said.

Bourne, a Raymond Republican, said Pope hopes to focus on prevention and make the office accessible to lawmakers and staff who might have ethics questions.

"She has a really strong background in sexual harassment," Bourne said. "Her knowledge was really impressive."

Bourne said the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission of state lawmakers voted unanimously for Pope, who now must be approved by the full legislature and would serve until 2023.

"I am confident that Judge Pope will fulfill her duties and meet our expectations as the legislative inspector general," Democratic state Sen. Cristina Castro of Elgin, a member of the ethics commission, said in a statement. "She will bring her experience and knowledge to our commission and help us move forward and become stronger."

Porter took the job last year in the days after a victims' rights advocate alleged she was harassed by a state senator and her complaints went unanswered for nearly a year. Denise Rotheimer told lawmakers that Democratic Sen. Ira Silverstein made unwanted comments about her appearance, sent her hundreds of Facebook messages and placed midnight phone calls as she was working with him to pass a bill for nearly 18 months. Silverstein disputed the allegations and said he apologized "if I made her uncomfortable."

Most of Porter's work has been done behind the scenes, but she determined in a public report that Silverstein did not engage in sexual harassment while working with Rotheimer to pass a bill but "did behave in a manner unbecoming of a legislator."

In a different case, Porter wrote that "evidence does not support" abuse complaints against a former top deputy of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan after the woman who made the accusations did not participate in the resulting investigation. Former medical marijuana advocate Maryann Loncar at a Capitol news conference in May accused Democratic state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie of retaliation, verbal abuse and "inappropriate behavior."

Lang held his own news conference immediately afterward, calling the accusations "absurd" and asking the legislative inspector general for an investigation. In a letter to Lang, Porter wrote that she attempted to reach Loncar via mail, email and Facebook but that "she has declined to respond to my overtures." Porter did interview Lang and other witnesses.

"Because a preponderance of evidence does not support Loncar's allegations that you engaged in misconduct, I am closing the matter," Porter wrote.

Porter was a member of the prosecution team in the Conrad Black fraud trial and worked on public corruption cases including those that led to the convictions of Springfield power broker Bill Cellini and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The latest quarterly report of the Legislative Ethics Commission says Porter had 17 investigations pending as of the end of September. Two are sexual harassment claims, four others are about alleged prohibited political activity, one is a retaliation claim and 10 fall under the "miscellaneous or uncharacterized" label. One case has been referred to a law enforcement agency, according to the report.

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