Check out this anonymous e-mail I received yesterday. (If you're not familiar with the Annabel Melongo case, click here for my compilation of media reports.)
1. Melongo's Computer Tampering case, the case that spawned the Eavesdropping case, is set for trial a week from tomorrow: June 24th, 2014. The case is nearly eight years old, has seen SIX judges, FIVE private lawyers and FOUR prosecutors. Carol Spizzirri, the criminal complainant, can’t plead the Fifth nor refuse to testify; therefore, this trial set the stage to know about the millions of dollars siphoned out of Save A Life Foundation. To learn more about this case, click here.
2. Additionally, Melongo has filed a Civil Right lawsuit based on the recently dismissed Eavesdropping case by the Illinois Supreme Court. Among others, she claims Equal Protection and names prosecutors in the State Attorney and Illinois Attorney General offices as defendants. To read this conscience-shocking complaint, click here or here.
3. Melongo is represented in both cases by Jennifer Bonjean, a New York-based lawyer practicing in Illinois.
As you ponder such questions, take a few minutes to read this unusual June 11, 2010 letter and "Cyber Sabotage Activities" report (in which I and others are named as Ms. Melongo's "co-conspirators") from Spizzirri to an IL Assistant Attorney General that includes:
I'm truly grateful to Attorney General (Lisa) Madigan, (Cook County) State's Attorney Alvarez who've Invested the manpower, resources, outside forensics and special training over these years to convict Melongo.
The (Illinois Supreme Court) is considering the constitutionality of the (IL eavesdropping) law after a woman prosecuted under it was incarcerated for over 18 months before her trial ended with a hung jury.
Annabel Melongo was once an employee of the Save-A-Life Foundation, an Illinois charity that has been accused
of dishonesty or financial impropriety. After secretly recording her
phone conversations with a Cook County court reporter and posting those
tapes on a personal website, she was charged in 2010 with violating the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, a law that requires a person to obtain the consent of anyone whose conversation he records.
A judge ultimately found for Melonga in her civil suit against the state, leading the Illinois Supreme Court to hold oral arguments today on the state's appeal.
...The ACLU of Illinois came down in an amicus brief squarely on the side of Melongo, who filed her brief with the high court on Dec. 6.
...An opening and reply
brief are also available from Illinois. Melongo meanwhile is also suing
the state in federal court for violations of her civil rights.
(First reported by The Sidebar, click here for a copy of Melongo's federal lawsuit.)
Here's a copy of the video I found on YouTube (with some minimal added graphic identifiers). It begins with Cook County Assistant State's Attorney's Alan Spellberg presenting the state's case. At time stamp 18:30, attorney Gabriel Plotkin of the Chicago law firm Miller Shakman and Beem LLP presents his argument on behalf of Ms. Melongo.
From an unsigned e-mail I received this morning identified only as originating from "Team Melongo":
The courtroom was so packed that some people had to watch the hearing in a screen at an adjacent room.
What's next? This morning I asked Gabriel Plotkin, who responded:
The next step is to wait for a written opinion from the Supreme Court. That will certainly take weeks, and likely months.
Any attorneys or legal experts out there want to share your thoughts for possible publication, signed or unsigned?
"After stinging defeat, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is appealing judge's dismissal of eavesdropping charges against Chicago woman jailed 20 months for recording a few phone calls."
The sting was that a powerful prosecutor with vast resources was legally bested by Annabel Melongo, a near-destitute woman with no formal legal training, who represented herself in the case.
Today I learned that in a few weeks the State's appeal of the lower court judge's dismissal of the charges -- on the grounds that the IL Eavesdropping Act is unconstitutional -- is scheduled to be heard by the Illinois Supreme Court.
This afternoon Gabriel Plotkin of the Chicago law firm Miller Shakman and Beem told me he and his colleagues will be representing Melongo and arguing on her behalf in front of the Supreme Court.
Click here to download the 60-page Defendant-Appellee brief filed December 6 on her behalf.
Click here to download the Plaintiff-Appellant brief filed by IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Alvarez.
And earlier this month, the Chicago office of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Melongo. Page down to view; click here to download a copy.
According to documents posted on IllinoisCorruption.net, the website tracking Melongo's case, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear her team's oral argument on January 14th at 9.30am at the Michael A. Bilandic Building, 18th floor, at 160 N. LaSalle Street in Chicago.
(According to the court schedule, the Supreme Court Building in downstate Springfield is being renovated during January, so perhaps some Chicago reporters will show up.)
Finally, as I reported last week, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed
in July against Alvarez, IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Cook County
Sheriff Tom Dart, and other county justice system employees by
Melongo, who per the complaint filed in the case, "endured extraordinary hardships and underwent incalculable loss, pain and humiliation for which she's now seeking redress."
Annabel Melongo of Chicago, who since 2006 has been fighting a string of dubious criminal charges, is kicking back in federal court with a wide-ranging civil rights lawsuit.
As Sidebar readers know, Melongo's troubles began in October 2006 when she was arrested for allegedly destroying the computer files of the nonprofit Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), whose employment she'd left months before.
It's a complicated case that's been going on for over seven years, but the federal complaint includes a very readable blow-by-blow description. Click here to download a copy.
This week, NBC2 in Terre Haute, Indiana, broadcast a strong two-part story by investigative reporter Patrick Fazio about the Illinois Eavesdropping Act and the Annabel Melongo case, arguably the most extreme application of the controversial statute.
As NBC 2 has investigated for the past year and a half, citizens have faced felony charges for recording audio of law enforcement.
Now we've found an Illinois woman who's actually spent time behind bars because of the state's eavesdropping law.
Annabel Melongo was arrested and jailed for more than a year and a half for recording her conversations with an on-duty law enforcement official.
For the first time ever, Melongo is talking about being locked up for recording possible government corruption.
The first segment also reported that the eavesdropping case grew out of previous charges filed against Melongo in 2006 for allegedly destroying computer files of the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF).
Last week, two news outlets outside of Illinois reported that Cook County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Goebel had dismissed eavesdropping charges filed against Annabel Melongo on the grounds that the controversial Illinois Eavesdropping Act is unconstitutional.
Melongo spent about 20 months in Cook County Jail while awaiting trial on charges that she recorded a few routine phone conversations with a court reporter named Pamela Taylor and uploaded them to a website.
An Illinois judge ruled
last week that the state’s eavesdropping law – one of the broadest
restrictions on audio recording in the nation – is unconstitutional.
The decision granted a request
for dismissal made by Annabel K. Melongo, a 39-year old woman who faced
criminal charges under the Illinois Eavesdropping Act. The
controversial law criminalizes
the audio recording of any communication without the consent of all
parties involved, regardless of whether the conversation was intended to
be private. Melongo, who is representing herselfin court,
recorded three phone calls with a clerk at the Cook County Court
Reporter’s office in Illinois without consent and posted them on her
watchdog website in 2010, incurring six charges of eavesdropping.
...Unable to post bail for a bond initially set at $500,000 and later
reduced to $300,000, Melongo spent about 20 months in a Cook County jail
and another four months under house arrest. She said the punishment
made her "the defendant with the harshest punishment for the
eavesdropping law in Cook County, if not in Illinois."
Originally from Cameroon, Melongo speaks English as her third
language....
In other words, Ms. Melongo -- an immigrant without a law degree who speaks imperfect English (I've talked with her) -- just handed Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez a stinging defeat.
At least one reporter is. Patrick Fazio at the NBC affiliate in Terre Haute, Indiana, reported the story on August 2 (and linked to a Sidebar item). Click here for the video:
It's not that Illinois reporters are unaware of all this. You should see my e-mail "sent" folder.
Someday maybe you will.
So how much money has this absurd, abusive prosecution -- which the State's Attorney took up in 2006 and which will now be dragging on via an appeal -- cost cash-strapped Illinois taxpayers?
Months ago I asked Anita Alvarez's media rep that question.
UPDATE, 3/21/12: According to a friend of Ms. Melongo, her court hearing was carried over to Monday, March 19. The same person says on that day she argued her motion to dismiss the eavesdropping charges against her on the grounds that the IL eavesdropping law is unconstitutional. The same person says Judge Steven Goebel is scheduled to issue his ruling on her motion on Thursday, April 5.
###
Per a Sidebar exclusive, Annabel Melongo was incarcerated in Cook County Jail for 18 months on a $300,000 bond:
The charges? Per the April 2010 grand jury indictment, under Illinois's controversial eavesdropping law, the state alleges that Melongo uploaded to her website recordings of routine phone conversations with a courthouse clerk.
Annabel Melongo
Last November 30, Melongo (who has chosen to represent herself in court) filed a motion asking Judge Steven Goebel to dismiss the State's case on the grounds that the controversial Illinois eavesdropping law under which she was charged is unconstitutional. (Page down to view.)
She may have the wind at her back as a result of Judge Stanley Sacks's March 2 ruling that declared the state's eavesdropping law unconstitutional, a decision that made national headlines (page down to view).
That was the second eavesdropping case within a year that was tossed by an Illinois judge who deemed the law unconstitutional.
Melongo has a court date tomorrow morning. According a friend, she's scheduled to argue her motion to dismiss.
WHEN: 10AM, Thursday, March 15, 2012 WHERE: Cook County Courthouse, located at the intersection of 26th and California Streets, Room 3A-15 (Click here for map)
###
In this FOX-TV News interview yesterday, here's what Judge Anthony Napolitano had to say about State's Attorney Anita Alvarez whose office has been prosecuting the Melongo case since October 2006.
(:25) The Cook County Attorney has no right to enforce this statute while two judges have found it unconstitutional. She's going to enforce it anyway.
IL v. Melongo, Defendant's Amended Motion To Declare Statute Unconstitutional And To Dismiss, November 30, 2011
IL v. Drew, defense motion to declare the IL eavesdropping statute unconstitutional and March 2, 2012 judge's order granting the motion
A Cook County Judge declared the state’s eavesdropping law unconstitutional Friday.
Judge Stanley J. Sacks read his ruling in the case of Christopher Drew, a Chicago artist who was charged with felony eavesdropping after he recorded his Dec. 2, 2009, arrest on State Street by Chicago Police.
“The Illinois Eavesdropping Statute potentially punishes as a felony a wide array of wholly innocent conduct,” he read. “A parent making an audio recording of their child’s soccer game, but in doing so happens to record nearby conversations, would be in violation of the Eavesdropping Statute.”
Prosecutors now may appeal the judge’s ruling directly to the state’s Supreme Court.
Present in court today was Annabel Melongo.
As first reported by The Sidebar, in October Melongo was released from Cook Cook County jail after being incarcerated for 18 months and held on a $300,000 bond.
Her crime?
According to Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, Melongo recorded some routine phone conversations with a Cook County Clerk of Courts, then uploaded audios and transcripts of the calls* to the Internet. (As a result of Judge Steven J. Goebel granting her motion, Melongo's now living with a friend under house arrest and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.)
This afternoon Melongo sent out the following e-mail. (Regarding any minor grammatical errors, Melongo was born in Cameroon. Her first language is French, her second is German, and her third is English.)
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 From: Annabel Melongo <melongo_annabel@yahoo.com>
Subject: Illinois Eavesdropping Law Unconstitutional In Cook County
Dear All,
Just to inform you that Judge Sacks, Christopher Drew's Judge, has just declared the Illinois Eavesdropping Law Unconstitutional in Cook County. Which ruling undoubtedly has repercussions in my case when I argue it on March 15th, 2012.
Seating in that courtroom, I had tears in my eyes when I heard this. I can't believe the end is almost near. I'm sending you this email from the courthouse, which shows what today's ruling means for me. You'll hear all of this in the hours or days to come, I just wanted you to have the news first, given your engagement, in one way or other, to my case.
A week after Circuit Court Judge Steven J. Goebel signed this court order, self-described fraud whistleblower Annabel Melongo has been released under house arrest from Cook County Jail after being held 18 months on a $300,000 bond.
The charges? Per the April 2010 grand jury indictment, under Illinois's controversial eavesdropping law, the state alleges that Melongo uploaded to her website recordings of routine phone conversations with a courthouse clerk.
Now an Illinois state senator with a background in law enforcement is asking serious questions about the case.
Melongo, who's been called a "political prisoner" by bloggers who've written about her case, is a former employee of the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a one-time high-profile, politically-connected Chicago-area nonprofit.
According to this page from Melongo's now-defunct website - it went dark while she was imprisoned - Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has been "harassing" her since October 2006 in order to protect powerful politicians whom she alleges were involved with SALF.
In October 2006, Annabel was charged of destroying SALF's files, among them financial records. Those charges were entirely based on claims made by SALF's founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri of Grayslake, IL. According to multiple news reports, Spizzirri has a history of serious fabrications, including the false claim that she is a Registered Nurse; that she worked as a renal transplant nurse in a Milwaukee hospital; and that she earned a BSN degree from a Wisconsin college whose name she misspelled on her CV.
...Illinois taxpayers may wonder why the state's top law enforcement officer (Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose High Tech Crimes unit assisted in the state's case against Melongo) and Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez are expending so much time and public money to prosecute this trumped-up case against her rather than investigate what happened to the millions of tax dollars that went to the Save-A-Life Foundation.
Re: the above allegations against Spizzirri and more, see Where Did the Save-A-Life Money Go?, a San Diego newsweekly article from last year.
Now Sen. Tim Bivins, a Republican from the Northwestern part of the state, has publicly expressed his concerns about the Melongo case.
Winning office in 2008 after retiring from 20 years as a county sheriff, Bivins learned about Melongo's situation after he began asking questions about another chapter in the SALF history: Gery Chico's relationship with the now-tainted nonprofit.
Gery Chico accepts award from SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri (2003?)
A long-time Chicago power player who ran second to Rahm Emanuel in this year's mayoral race, Chico's appointment to head the State Board of Education was reportedly stalled in June by the Senate Executive Appointments Committee on which Bivins serves. To my knowledge, no date's been set, but Chico's slated to appear before the committee to answer questions about SALF.
Sen. Tim Bivins
In response to my inquiry about his interest in the Melongo case, Sen. Bivins e-mailed me this statement:
To say this whole case is troubling would be an understatement.
Annabel Melongo has spent a year and a half in jail and her accuser is alleged to have a tainted past, which if true, would make her a witness and alleged victim without credibility.
Did Annabel Melongo with intent destroy SALF's records or was she a whistleblower who was set up by her former boss? Any reasonable person who looked at SALF and the Melongo case would walk away with more questions than answers.
According to a friend of hers, for the first time in 18 months, last night Annabel Melongo didn't sleep in a jail cell.
UPDATE: On August 7, I received an e-mail from Deputy White House Press Secretary Jamie Smith informing me that she was checking on my inquiry (copied below) and would get back to me ASAP.
Per my web page, for years Duncan was indeed close to SALF.
Reportedly he even called SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri "one of my heroes."
Based on the information published last November in the San Diego Reader, you'd think Duncan, now US Secretary of Education, might have set the bar higher.
Spizzirri was a darling of politicians and bureaucrats, although it was a matter of record that she had been convicted twice for shoplifting.
...(It) wasn’t until November of 2006 that ABC 7 News in Chicago, in the first of several broadcasts, exposed more of Spizzirri’s untruthful statements. She had told the station that she was a registered nurse. But the station reported that the institution from which she had claimed to receive her nursing degree had never given her one. A hospital in which she had claimed to be a transplant nurse said she had been a patient care assistant, which is akin to a candy striper.
After the announcer challenged her on the assertion that the accident was a hit-and-run, she walked out of the interview.
Here's that exit scene - take note of the man who leads her off camera.
To my knowledge, such a claim is unsupported by the record.
In the HuffPo article, clicking the link attached to his name takes you to this web page from SALF's now-defunct site.
Not much here except some hype about a phone call between Spizzirri and US Senator Obama, and this:
While in the Illinois legislature together, Obama and current Illinois Senate President Emil Jones were always supportive of SALF’s efforts to train Illinois schoolchildren in life-sustaining skills for free.
For example, on its 2004 & 2005 IRS filings, SALF identified Jones as being on their board.
But that's Senator Jones, not his pupil.
Without question, the most intriguing (and potentially damning) allegation originates from Annabel Melongo, a former SALF employee who since April 2010 has been imprisoned in Cook County Jail on a $300,000 bond.
Annabel Melongo
The charge? Two counts of eavesdropping.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez - who, as reported by the NY Times, has a history of abusive prosecutions using the same dubious law - alleges Melongo committed the heinous act of uploading recordings of two mundane phone calls she had with a court clerk to her now-defunct website.
Tax watchdogs and political opponents may also start adding up the megabucks the spendthrift Alvarez and her co-operative judges are costing county taxpayers in pursuit of such pointless prosecutions.
In my subpoenas, there was no direct email between Obama and Carol Spizzirri. However there’s a manager, Vince Davis, who told employees, through an email, about Obama sponsoring a bill to fuel $10 million or so, I don’t recall the exact amount, to the organization. That was the only and first time I ever saw Obama’s name mentioned in the SALF saga. The email in question was sent in response to employees panicking in the wake of the November 16, 2006 ABC investigative report.
If that turns to be true, then it’s a big story in itself.
Indeed. But I've twice asked Melongo to provide me with a copy of the alleged e-mail and twice she's refused.
In an attempt to separate fact from rumor, this week I tried to obtain some answers.
Kori Schulman
On Monday I phoned the White House switchboard, identified myself as a blogger and was steered to a woman named Kori Schulman. We had a pleasant chat during which she explained that my inquiry didn't fall into her job responsibility, but she courteously offered to forward my e-mail to an appropriate staffer in the White House press office.
My e-mail's copied below. In a future post, I'll let you know what happens.
Meanwhile, if anyone wants to ask Vince Davis for a copy of the alleged $10 million e-mail, here's his LinkedIn page.
Vince Davis
If Davis looks familiar, it may be because he's the guy who interrupted the ABC7 interview with Carol Spizzirri and escorted her off camera.
