Bid for Thomson injunction flops

Republican state comptroller candidate William Kelly's bid for an injunction against the Thomson Correctional Center deal that would bring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Illinois was soundly rejected Tuesday after he arrived in court without legal representation.

The request for an injunction was filed Monday by Kelly and attorneys Alison and Robert Motta, but Assistant Attorney General Katherine Laurent said in court Tuesday that Alison Motta had told her they were not representing Kelly.

Asked by Cook County Circuit Court Chancery Judge Martin Agran if he was representing himself at the hearing at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago, Kelly replied, "I found out today that is indeed the case."

Kelly later said he did not know the reason the Mottas dropped out. Reached later on the phone, Alison Motta said her Aurora-based firm was asked to help out in the filing at the "last minute" and that it is not their area of expertise. They also had previous obligations. "We were not able to appear today, and he knew that going in," she said.

In court, Kelly argued that a December hearing in Sterling on the proposal to close Thomson, sell it to the federal government and use it as a high-security prison, in part for accused terrorists now held at the U.S. military base in Cuba, did not meet state statutes calling for such a hearing to be publicized and held within 25 miles of the facility. He said it also did not address the financial impact on the community.

Laurent argued that Kelly had no standing to seek a temporary restraining order on behalf of the public and that by representing himself he could only argue his own interests in the case as a Chicago resident. After a hearing of less than a half hour, Agran agreed and ruled the request for a temporary restraining order stricken.

"They won the battle, but they won't win the war," Kelly said afterward in announcing his intent to pursue the case.

"The people of Illinois deserve to be heard, whether they're opposed or not to the transfer of the prison. I'm opposed to the transfer," he added. "It's going to make Illinois, and Chicago in particular, a target for al-Qaida. I believe the people of Illinois have a right to know that before it happens."

State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, co-chairman of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability named in the filing, described it as a publicity stunt by a desperate candidate.

Kelly is running in the Feb. 2 Republican primary against Judy Baar Topinka of Riverside and Orland Park Trustee Jim Dodge. Topinka declined to comment on Kelly's case, but Dodge labeled it "yet another Bill Kelly publicity stunt."

The commission has a hearing set for Wednesday in Chicago. Its opinion, however, is only advisory; the final say on the deal is with Gov. Pat Quinn.