Complaint: Fired Lake Co. public defender claimed he was prosecutor

A former supervisor with the Lake County Public Defender's Office faces disciplinary charges for misrepresenting himself to gain information on criminal cases, according to a state complaint.

Scott Wineberg, now a private attorney after being fired from the office in May, has been hit with three counts of engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation in the complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

According to the complaint, Wineberg identified himself as a member of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office on two occasions while trying to gain information about cases he was investigating for the public defender's office.

In the third, he tampered with a file he was not authorized to see, the complaint states.

Wineberg did not immediately return calls Tuesday for comment.

The IARD, which reviews the conduct of lawyers, said Wineberg is allowed to file a response to the complaint with the Illinois Supreme Court. If a settlement isn't reached before a hearing, the state supreme court would review and decide the case, then hand out punishment as needed, said Scott Renfroe, senior council for the IARD.

"This means he was accused of wrongdoing, the situation was investigated by our office, and there is enough evidence to move forward and charge him," Renfroe said. "He has an opportunity to respond and defend himself, just like in a court of law."

The complaint states Wineberg told an Island Lake police dispatcher he was with the state's attorney's office in order to gain inside information about a rape case he was handling. He made the same claim to hospital officials in Milwaukee regarding a different case he was assigned.

The third count involves tampering with a public defender's office case file that wasn't assigned to him.

That complaint alleges Wineberg improperly copied medical records mistakenly left on a copier by a co-worker. After being confronted and admitting to making the copies, he was demoted, and moved to a different department. After the transfer, Wineberg returned to the original file and removed documents detrimental to the original case, the complaint states.

He was terminated from the public defender's office and the IARD was notified.

Renfroe said it is unclear how long Wineberg has to respond to the charges or when the Illinois Supreme Court would rule.