SPRINGFIELD – Attorney regulators filed a complaint against Ron Duebbert on May 5, over conduct that cost him his job as circuit judge.
Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission administrator Jerome Larkin seeks a hearing and a recommendation for such discipline as is warranted.
Duebbert allegedly made false statements in a murder investigation and a Judicial Inquiry Board investigation.
The judicial inquiry resulted in Duebbert’s removal by Illinois court commissioners this January.
Voters in the 20th Judicial Circuit elected Duebbert over incumbent chief judge John Baricevic in November 2016.
Madison County sheriff’s deputy Timothy Lawrence contacted Duebbert on Dec. 30, 2016, about the murder of Carl Silas in Belleville that morning.
Lawrence and state police agent Patrick McGuire, both on temporary assignment with the region’s major case squad, interviewed Duebbert at his home.
At Duebbert’s hearing before court commissioners last October, McGuire said they wanted to make sure murder suspect David Fields hadn’t stolen his firearms.
Fields lived in Duebbert’s home briefly after serving a sentence for domestic abuse.
After Duebbert showed them all his handguns, they asked about telephones.
His lawyer Mary Robinson said at his October hearing that his answers were incomplete and muddled but he didn’t intend to mislead.
Commissioners let Duebbert testify that he was petrified but allowed little testimony about why.
They had previously ruled that he could not introduce evidence about the political background of the murder investigation.
Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas, as commission chairman, stopped the hearing twice to limit testimony.
He stopped it when Circuit Judge Stephen McGlynn, testifying for Duebbert, said Duebbert told him what happened at the country club.
He stopped it when Robinson asked Duebbert about a newspaper article.
When Robinson asked McGuire if he and Lawrence had information connecting Duebbert to the murder, McGuire said no.
Robinson asked him if they were trying to locate Fields and he said, “I suppose so. I don’t know when he got picked up.”
No one picked Fields up on that date. He turned himself in, on Duebbert’s advice.
Prosecutor David Fee asked Duebbert if he told the officers he talked to Fields and Duebbert said, “It appears not. I answered whatever they asked me.”
A commissioner asked McGuire whether he asked Duebbert if he talked to Fields, and McGuire said he didn’t recall.
A commissioner asked him how he knew to interview Duebbert, and he said he didn’t recall but he assumed the squad commander got the phone number.
A commissioner asked him when he learned Fields was in custody, and he said he didn’t know when he knew it.
Fee asked Duebbert if Fields discussed the allegations and Duebbert said, “He denied it.”
Duebbert said, “He said the police put a gun to his head and said they’d kill him if he didn’t cooperate.”
Robinson asked Lawrence what he knew about evidence on Fields and he said, “We knew evidence existed that connected him to the crime.”
Robinson asked what the evidence was, and Lawrence said he didn’t recall.
A commissioner asked Lawrence whether he and McGuire asked Duebbert for a phone Fields used, and Lawrence said he didn’t remember.
In closing argument, Fee referred to Duebbert’s statement about being petrified.
Robinson objected and said, “I was restricted in my ability to present evidence of the judge’s fear.”
Thomas said, “We are not going to reargue the motion.”
Although the major case squad’s investigation of Duebbert succeeded, its investigation of the murder did not.
Jurors found Fields not guilty, after hearing an evidence technician with little evidence, a firearm expert with no firearm, and a fingerprint expert with no prints.