Lawsuit Says Dorothy Brown Has 'Phantom Legal Division'

By Prescott Carlson in News on Jan 12, 2010 10:20PM

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk and Cook County Board Presidential candidate Dorothy Brown is being accused of shenanigans once again, this time by "civic bounty hunter" David Novoselsky who claims Brown set up a big budget for a quasi-legal division within her office. CBS 2's Jay Levine reported last night that this local watchdog has filed a lawsuit alleging that Brown has amassed a large team of lawyers within her office by hiring them and giving them different job titles.

While Brown claims to only have 3 legal counsels in her office, Novoselsky says she also has a large number of "legal-systems analysts," with some being paid $85,000 per year. Novoselsky also presented Levine with a business card he says is from a legal analyst in the Clerk's office that said they were from the "Office of the General Counsel" -- a division that doesn't exist within the Clerk's office. County commissioner Tony Peraica, not one to mince words, said to Levine that it is "fraud in budgeting, where positions like that are hidden with mislabeled job descriptions."

Brown is no stranger to the job reclassification game. She came under fire in 2008 for having a chauffeur who is budgeted as a "security officer." More recently, Brown has found herself in the middle of accusations that people were gathering signatures on election petitions for her as part of "job training," and it was noted that she held a campaign press conference on County property -- a definite no-no.