Cueto
Funeral services for Amiel Cueto, who died May 28 at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, will be held at 11 a.m. on June 1 at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Belleville.
Burial will follow at Mount Carmel Cemetery.
He had been treated for cancer.
Cueto lost his license to practice law following a federal conviction in 1997 on charges of obstructing justice and conspiring to defraud the United States.
The Illinois Supreme Court suspended his law license in 1998 and disbarred him in 2004.
He was not authorized to practice law, but he could represent himself and file lawsuits "pro se."
Cueto filed a defamation suit against the Record in 2006, over an item discussing Cueto's relevance to the candidacy of his brother, Lloyd Cueto, for St. Clair County circuit judge.
A judge from outside St. Clair County who was selected to preside over the case dismissed it in 2008.
Cueto also filed a series of suits aiming to clear his criminal record and regain his license.
He sued Illinois Supreme Court justices in federal court in 2008, claiming they wrongly revoked his license.
He sued former St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida and others in 2009, claiming they operated a criminal racket that sent him to prison and cost him his law license.
Those cases were also dismissed.
He sued the Illinois Civil Justice League claiming his privacy was invaded and he was placed in a false light before the public by a political ad aimed at his brother, Lloyd Cueto, who ran for election rather than retention in 2006.
Cueto sued the Belleville News-Democrat, the Chicago Tribune and others for allegedly placing him in a false light by alluding to testimony about him from his trial and related court proceedings.
He sued the St. Louis Post-Dispatch over a column Bill McClellan wrote regarding a St. Clair County court hearing related to Cueto's suit against the Madison County Record.
McClellan's column, "Cueto has a gift, or maybe he doesn't," began:
"Amiel Cueto was sitting at a table in the courtroom. He was heavier than I remembered. His stomach was allegedly lopping over his pants. His hair was long, but allegedly thin on top. His mustache was allegedly wispy. I made a note to myself to be careful what I wrote in my notebook. Hedge everything, I reminded myself. Cueto is not averse to filing lawsuits."
Cueto sued American Bank Holdings, Inc. of Maryland and others over a dispute involving East St. Louis riverfront land he owned. St. Clair County Associate Judge Andrew Gleeson entered a default judgment for Cueto in the amount of $98 million in the case when the bank failed to timely answer the suit. The award was later vacated.