Did Judge Illegally Jail Lawyer?

CHICAGO - “I haven’t discussed this with anyone, I have one friend who is a lawyer, and I’ve looked up Illinois law, I’ve mulled about this for a week.” Says divorce attorney Nancy Murphy.

Murphy's been practicing law for almost twenty years, mostly in the domestic relations division at the Daley Center. But not until last week did she learn, first hand, what it was like to be hauled from a courtroom, handcuffed like a criminal, and transported to the Cook County Jail.

“I felt like I was in a movie. I didn't know, I mean, he said, this order is direct contempt. And I just was in shock,” says Murphy.

Her arrest was ordered by Judge Mark Lopez, who's been on the bench for ten years and did not return our calls. After a child support hearing that lasted several hours last Wednesday, he asked Murphy to submit an order summarizing what happened. After she did so, he found her in contempt of court, for ignoring his instructions and ordered her spend one night in jail.

“I don’t' know if he had a bad day, if something happened, if something snapped, I don't know what happened,” explains Murphy.

When deputies took her out of the courtroom, she began vomiting. She was strip searched twice, and sobbed all the way to the jail and into the night.

Murphy describes her time in jail, saying, “Meanwhile, the guards are all saying nice things to you as well, crack whore and things like that.”

She was released after a sleepless night, but is still too traumatized to do much work. And legal experts we spoke with could not believe Murphy had been jailed over a court order.

“I haven't seen the transcript, but from what you've described and from what his order says, there was no justification for locking her up,” says Richard Kling of the Chicago Kent College of Law.

Daniel Coyne, President of the Chicago Council of Lawyers says, “It would seem to be an overreaching of judicial authority to incarcerate someone in cook county jail for a drafting problem.”

And as to why Murphy is now telling her story publicly – “He can't just do this to anyone. All the time when I was thinking about why am I going to talk to you, is, he can't just do this,” says Murphy.