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Sunday, June 25, 2006

Courts - Chicago federal judges are receiving home security systems

The Chicago Tribune , in a lengthy story today, reports:

Most federal judges in Chicago are receiving home security systems as the U.S. Marshals Service seeks to better protect the judiciary following last year's slayings of the husband and mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, officials said.

The systems are part of broader security improvements for judges here, leaders of the Marshals Service said. Many of the improvements are being paid for with federal funds provided in the wake of the Lefkow tragedy.

Federal and local agencies are sharing information on those who surface as a security concern for judges, and they have increased efforts to investigate possible threats that emerge from judges' daily work at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

Officials said they hope the changes will answer some of the complaints from critics of the marshals after the killings, including some judges. Lefkow's husband and mother were shot in the Lefkows' North Side home in February 2005 by Bart Ross, a litigant enraged at the judge. Lefkow had dismissed the medical malpractice suit Ross filed after cancer of the jaw left him disfigured. Nine days after the slayings, Ross killed himself, confessing to the murders in a suicide note.

Of the $12 million provided last year by Congress nationally for judicial security, more than 10 percent came to Chicago, said Michael J. Prout, chief deputy U.S. marshal in Chicago. "Almost all" of Chicago's 65 federal judges have said they want a home security system, and they are being installed now. Systems have been offered across the country to 2,200 judges, Prout said.

"We are on target to make sure that everybody that wants them has them by the end of September," Prout said.

The funds are being spent more than a year after Lefkow--who has not blamed marshals for what happened to her family--traveled to Washington to plead for more protection for the judiciary.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 25, 2006 08:53 AM
Posted to Courts in general