BELLEVILLE – Circuit Judge Chad Beckett of Urbana will preside over defamation and malicious prosecution claims of former judge Ron Duebbert against former St. Clair County state’s attorney Brendan Kelly, lawyer Alex Enyart, and Belleville police.
Sixth Circuit chief judge Randy Rosenbaum assigned Beckett after the Illinois Supreme Court ordered Rosenbaum to assign a judge from his circuit.
The Supreme Court had granted an outside judge to Duebbert in March through a supervisory order to chief St. Clair County judge Andrew Gleeson.
Champaign County voters elected Beckett, a Democrat, to the bench last year.
Four years earlier Beckett ran in all Sixth Circuit counties and lost to Rosenbaum.
Duebbert sued Kelly, now state police director, and St. Clair County in 2020.
Duebbert claimed Kelly remained active in a sexual harassment investigation after referring it to special prosecutors due to a conflict of interest.
Duebbert sued Belleville and policemen Timothy Crimm and Daniel Collins, claiming they fabricated charges against him.
Duebbert sued former criminal defense client Carlos Rodriguez of Belleville, whose accusations resulted in felony charges in 2017.
Duebbert sued Enyart, who acted as victim advocate for Rodriguez.
The charges fell through when prosecutors admitted that Rodriguez embellished his statement.
When Duebbert’s counsel Michael Lawder of St. Louis filed his defamation and malicious prosecution suit he asked for an outside judge.
Gleeson reached outside the county but not outside the 20th Circuit.
He assigned circuit judge Daniel Emge of Washington County.
Emge’s jurisdiction ended in December because legislators shrank the 20th circuit to St. Clair County and created a circuit for Washington, Perry, Monroe, and Randolph counties.
Emge sent the case back to Gleeson and on Dec. 30, Duebbert moved to disqualify all St. Clair County judges.
Lawder claimed Duebbert defeated a popular and powerful judge, referring to his election over chief judge John Baricevic in 2016.
Lawder claimed no judge appeared at Duebbert’s swearing-in ceremony except fellow Republican Stephen McGlynn, now a U.S. district judge.
On Feb. 9, Duebbert petitioned the Supreme Court for an outside judge.
Lawder wrote, “Plaintiff simply wants this matter to proceed, and judge Emge’s recent recusal seemingly has put this case in paralyzed limbo with nothing happening to get this case moving from a judicial standpoint.”
He claimed the level of prejudice is too high to be constitutionally tolerable.
Lawder claimed Duebbert practiced 27 years before many of the judges.
He claimed all the judges are friends or acquaintances of Kelly.
He also claimed Enyart is a son of former judge Anita Eckert.
On Feb. 16, county counsel Garrett Hoerner objected to the petition.
He claimed Gleeson assigned Associate Judge Elaine LeChien on Feb. 1.
Hoerner claimed Duebbert didn’t make enough specific allegations on LeChien or any other judge.
He also claimed Duebbert didn’t even refer to her by name.
He added that Duebbert should raise his issues with her.
“There is no dispute involving a matter important to the administration of justice,” Hoerner wrote.
Lawder filed a supplement on March 6 stating he received from Kelly’s counsel an assignment order purportedly filed on Feb. 1.
He claimed he checked the docket on Feb. 8, and there was no entry for an assignment order.
He added that he found a docket entry for “judge reassigned” on Feb. 10.
Lawder claimed he traveled to the courthouse on Feb. 17, and there was no such order to print out.
The Supreme Court allowed Duebbert’s motion on March 8.
As of April 10, the county website still identified LeChien as Duebbert’s judge.