A Cook County judge returned the phone of a lawyer Wednesday after impounding it last week when the attorney was seen filming a rape victim after a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Judge David Navarro ordered the phone taken for an investigation after a prosecutor and sheriff’s deputies saw attorney Barry M. Lewis recording the woman outside a courtroom where he had just represented a defendant in the woman’s case — who is also her husband.
Navarro had scolded Lewis, who said he didn’t know he wasn’t allowed to record in the building.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they did not plan to pursue an indirect contempt citation against Lewis unless it was ordered by the court. Navarro said that he also wasn’t going to pursue a citation against Lewis, but warned him against recording in the building in the future.
“Not only do I understand ... I couldn’t possibly forget,” Lewis told the judge, “I will never do it again.”
Lewis later tried to submit a motion asking that the judge order the preservation of the recording he had made and other “forensic data” on the phone, saying that he “didn’t want to be accused of destroying evidence.”
After a back and forth between the judge, prosecutors and Lewis, Lewis decided not to file the motion.
Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said after the hearing that prosecutors had not viewed the recording that Lewis made, nor did the judge.
Prosecutors allege that the Lewis’ client raped his wife at their home following an argument that stemmed from a comment made by a customer at the restaurant they both work at about the woman’s attractiveness. Her husband has been ordered held on $50,000 bail.
The Sun-Times is not identifying him to protect the victim’s identity.
At the hearing in the case last week, Lewis had asked for Navarro to review his client’s bail, which was then continued to Wednesday after prosecutors said they weren’t given prior notice of the motion.
On Wednesday, prosecutors said a grand jury had returned an indictment against Lewis’ client and said the defendant’s family has been pressuring the woman to drop the charges.
Lewis tried to submit “evidence” that he said were messages from the woman to his client about the case. Judge Navarro said he wouldn’t consider them for bail review.
During the hearing, a sheriff’s deputy came into the courtroom to tell prosecutors that the defendant’s brother had approached the woman outside the courtroom. Prosecutors alleged the defendant’s brother had told her to write a letter stating that she thinks that the charges should be dropped. In light of that, prosecutors asked for the man’s bail to be increased.
Lewis argued that he hadn’t been notified by prosecutors that they would request an increase in bail. Navarro said they didn’t have to, reminding Lewis that he had asked for the bail review hearing in the first place and it could go either way.
Navarro ultimately ruled that the man’s bail should stay at $50,000 and warned the defendant’s family that if they harass or intimidate the woman they could face charges of their own.
The woman’s husband is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 31.
