180 days in jail for Kane County court contempt case
A Carpentersville man who authorities say clogged up the Kane County judicial system with a flurry of frivolous legal filings was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail.
Robert Sperlazzo, 63, of the 600 block of Deer Hill Court, was convicted in August of contempt of court in a bench trial before Carroll County Judge Val Gunnarsson, who was brought in to hear the case because Sperlazzo sued so many judges in Kane County.
Authorities say Sperlazzo filed 22 separate documents from March, 2011 until June, with judges sometimes ordering him to stop. The papers he filed made wild calls for relief, from seeking the arrest of two judges, demanding millions in damages from several other judges and attorneys, and claiming the 16th Judicial Circuit had no authority over him.
Gunnarsson told Sperlazzo Tuesday his methods were misguided.
“You can have your own courthouse in your mind all you want, but you can’t force it on (others),” Gunnarsson said, saying Sperlazzo’s actions were to hinder, embarrass and obstruct the court. “The problem is you think you have a right because of that vision of the law in your head. You still believe you have the right to disrupt what you call statutory court. You did everything you could on paper to damage and obstruct the system.”
Sperlazzo, who refers to himself as “Robert Dale of the House of Sperlazzo,” responded by complaining that judges had conspired against him, and his contempt conviction was the result of “lies and bias and treachery.”
Sperlazzo first ran afoul of the law spring 2011 when the Kane County Bar Association sought an injunction against him. The association argued Sperlazzo was falsely impersonating an attorney at the Kane County Recorder’s office in December 2010 when he told two men he could help them keep their property even though it was in foreclosure.
An injunction against Sperlazzo was granted, but then he filed dozens of documents that resulted in his contempt conviction.
“He just upped the ante, your honor, and filed ever-increasing contemptuous documents,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Cullen.
Sperlazzo’s defense attorney Herb Hill said his client did not have any previous criminal offenses and argued for probation. Hill said the public was never in danger from Sperlazzo’s actions and the contempt offense didn’t rise to the level of, say, an outburst in a courtroom.
Sperlazzo was taken into custody immediately. He can have is sentence cut in half for good behavior behind bars.