Madison County Associate Judge Ron Motil on Oct. 7 ordered former county IT director Rob Dorman to pay $43,305.50 in fees and costs in one of many lawsuits he's filed challenging his 2020 firing.
Motil had dismissed the case against Madison County with prejudice on July 1, and indicated then that he would allow defendant's motion for sanctions.
Dorman petitioned to vacate Motil's sanction on Oct. 7.
In total, Dorman has been ordered by the court to pay more than $50,000 in sanctions over what State's Attorney Tom Haine has called "frivolous lawsuits" filed by Dorman and former county administrator Doug Hulme, also fired by the county board in 2020.
Dorman, Hulme or both have filed a total of 20 lawsuits against the county or county officials, with more than 15 of them having been resolved in favor of the defendants.
Earlier this year, Haine said in a press release that the county has had to spend more than $480,000 since Dorman and Hulme were fired to defend litigation that never advanced beyond the pleading stage, or the very beginning of the case.
Haine also said that since their firing, Hulme and Dorman have flooded the county with hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests.
"Records show that in just the past three years Dorman, Dorman’s spouse, and Hulme alone have filed more than 250 Freedom of Information Act requests to county officials," the release states. "For example, in just the four-month period from February through May of this year, Dorman and Hulme have filed at least 14 FOIA requests with county offices.
"On top of that, during the same four-month period, Dorman and Hulme have filed at least six FOIA appeals with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, seeking reviews of county responses to the pair’s FOIA requests."
Last year, after finding in favor of the defendant, Associate Judge Ronald Foster ordered Dorman to pay $7,728 in a lawsuit against former treasurer and current board Chairman Chris Slusser (22MR288). Dorman appealed the decision on Feb. 5. The case remains pending.
Foster also ordered Dorman to pay $1,000 in a case filed against the State's Attorney's Office involving an alleged failure to comply with a FOIA request. Dorman appealed the case's dismissal, but the Fifth District Appellate Court affirmed dismissal.