CNN iReport

On March 13, 2009, I sat in a child support hearing in Bloomington, IL.  I was stunned when I realized that the judge, James E. Souk, had actually fallen asleep while there was a witness on the stand, and evidence was being presented.  Before rendering a jusgement, he admitted that it was a very confusing case, and essentially, the judgement was split 50/50.  This is not a disgruntled complaint against a judge.  It is, however, a report of misconduct by an elected official who no longer seems able to serve the post he was elected to fill.

This is a Family Court Judge, and he happens to be the Presiding Judge over the Family Court Division.  He is deciding the future of lives, specifically the custody of children, for 33 1/3% of all new dissolution of marriage cases in McLean County, IL, as well as all cases he previously presided over, and yet he cannot maintain consciousness while on the bench.  This is outrageous, and is an obscene disservice to the people of McLean County, who put their trust in James Souk, The Sleeping Judge.

Judge Souk has a standing reputation of nodding off in hearings.  He was the presiding judge the the Michael Connolly case, in which the father was granted unsupervised visitation after having had a standing order from another county for supervised visitation.  This was done in November 2008.  On March 8, 2009, Mr. Connolly failed to return his sons, Jack, 7, and Duncan, 9, to their mother.  They have not yet been recovered, and he has also vanished.

This leaves open the question of how McLean County citizens can continue to have faith in a judge who was literally sleeping on the job.

UPDATE:  Sadly, Jack and Duncan Connolly have been recovered, apparently murdered by their father, who then took his own life.  There is currently a petition on ipetition.com demanding Judge Souk's immediate removal from the bench.  According to a story in The Pantagraph, the Bloomington, IL newspaper, local prosecutors state that he always reviews the case files prior to hearings.  The question posed now is this:  does he take anything else into account?

The petition can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/justiceforjackandduncan/index.html

Blessings to the mother of these young boys.  This was a terrible tragedy that did not happen.  Thanks to the sleeping judge, however, it did.