Challenge to ex-Green Oaks mayor's case tossed

An "ill-considered" phone call to the original judge in the child pornography case against former Green Oaks Mayor Tom Adams is not enough to get the charges thrown out.

Kane County Judge Philip DiMarzio, who was assigned the case after the original judge decided she could not hear it, said Adams' rights were not wounded by the call.

"Judges and state's attorneys take oaths to faithfully uphold the law," DiMarzio said Friday in denying the motion. "The system is not so delicate that a single phone call can trigger a dismissal."

Waukegan defense attorney Thomas Briscoe argued the call from Lake County board member Bob Sabonjian to Circuit Judge Victoria Rossetti ruined his client's right to a fair trial.

Adams, 69, was arrested in July 2006 after police said they traced child pornography that had been sent to an undercover police officer to a computer in Adams home at 885 Anderson Drive.

Adams was mayor of Green Oaks from 1993 until he resigned shortly after his arrest, and was chairman of the county Republican Party from 2002 to 2004.

Briscoe said the July 2007 call from Sabonjian, a Waukegan Democrat, was "political in nature, partisan and threatening" to the political future of Rossetti, a Republican.

In addition, Briscoe said, a firestorm of media coverage of the flap put enough indirect pressure on State's Attorney Michael Waller to erase any chances Adams may have had to negotiate a plea agreement.

"Ninety-five percent of the criminal cases in this courthouse are negotiated," Briscoe said. "But because of that phone call, if the Republican state's attorney attempts to negotiate a settlement with the former chairman of the Republican party, accusations of back-door politics will be made."

Exactly what Sabonjian said in the message he left for Rossetti is unclear because the judge placed a tape of the call under seal.

Sabonjian has admitted he was protesting reports of what he believed to be a closed-door negotiation of the case.

Rossetti and all the other judges in Lake County decided they could not hear the case against Adams after the call and DiMarzio was assigned.

Assistant State's Attorney Patricia Fix argued although Sabonjian's call created technical difficulties in the case, Adams' right to a fair trial was not impacted.

Sabonjian did not violate any law by making the call, Fix said, although she did characterize the communication as "ill considered."

DiMarzio scheduled a trial of the case for April 21.

Adams faces a mandatory prison sentence of at least four years if convicted of distributing child pornography.