A controversy-plagued former Alabama judge, who was twice suspended over ethical misconduct accusations, has filed suit against the city of Chicago, claiming the city persuaded her to resign her judgeship with the promise of a job as one of the city's top attorneys, only to withdraw the offer after she had quit and relocated north.
In June, Tracie Todd filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court, accusing the city of one count of "detrimental reliance" for allegedly wrongly reneging on the job offer.
Todd has generated headlines in her home state of Alabama for years.
In 2012, Todd was elected as the first black female judge in the history of that southern U.S. state, serving in Birmingham in the circuit courts of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. She handled criminal law cases.
She was reelected in 2018 to another term, which was scheduled to expire in 2025.
In 2014, she married Chicago businessman Wesley Coleman, owner of the En-Progress technology consulting firm. Their long-distance romance was the subject of an article published by The Chicago Tribune that year.
However, Todd's career as an Alabama state judge was tumultuous, particularly in the final three years of her tenure.
During her eight years on the bench, Todd was hit with multiple ethics complaints, and was suspended twice.
According to published reports, Todd was first suspended in 2021 after the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission issued a 100-page report accusing her of abusing her judicial power and of abandoning the detachment and neutrality required of judges.
The state's judicial regulators then convicted Todd of violating judicial ethics rules, asserting she had ignored binding appellate courts rulings; had inappropriately publicly accused Alabama's courts of being corrupt; had essentially become an advocate for criminal defendants rather than a neutral arbiter of the facts of the cases before her; and had inappropriately asked a lawyer under oath during court proceedings if he had politically donated to the campaign of the judge she had defeated in the 2012 election.
Todd was then suspended again in 2022 after she was accused again of not following the orders of Alabama's Court of the Judiciary, particularly accusing her of attempting to essentially perform her work as a judge remotely from Chicago, rather than in Alabama, as she had been instructed to do by Alabama's judicial leaders.
In her new lawsuit, Todd asserts the various ethical charges and disciplinary actions were the result of politically-motivated attacks by "conservatives" in the state in alleged retaliation for Todd's rulings.
In 2016, Todd ruled that certain people convicted of murder could not be executed under the state's capital punishment law because the state's capital sentencing system allegedly violated the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, that system would allow judges to override a jury's recommendation that people convicted of murder receive a life sentence without parole, rather than death.
According to Todd's new lawsuit, that "landmark ruling ... cited the influence of politics, partisanship, bias, and potential for bias in the judiciary in death penalty cases involving African American defendants."
Alabama's Attorney General appealed that ruling, and it was overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. That court also ordered Todd to step aside from hearing other capital murder cases, because her rulings did not align with decisions handed down by the Alabama Supreme Court.
Todd's lawsuit, however, asserts "her courageous and powerful ruling" then further led "conservatives in Alabama" to do "everything possible to besmirch and hurt Tracie's standing as a Judge..."
Todd resigned in late November 2023. In her complaint, she "continues to maintain her innocence of ethical violations" but said the constant controversy and need to defend herself "had become exhausting."
She claims she decided to relocate to Chicago to live with her husband. But she said that decision also relied on a job offer she allegedly received from the city of Chicago to serve as Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Labor Division of the Chicago Department of Law, which employs the lawyers who serve as in-house counsel for the city. Her job duties would have included assisting the city with "labor relations issues, union matters, collective bargaining, union grievances and arbitrations, and unfair labor practices," the lawsuit said.
According to the complaint, the job would have paid Todd nearly $118,000 per year, plus benefits.
According to the complaint, Todd was scheduled to start work for the city in mid-December 2023.
However, allegedly about 10 days before she was scheduled to start work for the city, the city allegedly withdrew the job offer without explanation, according to the complaint.
"While the environment was stressful for her in Alabama, Tracie never would have resigned her judgeship there, unless she found alternative employment," the lawsuit said. "Tracie resigned her judgeship in reliance on the City of Chicago's unconditional offer of employment."
Todd asserts she would have been reelected to the judgeship in Alabama in 2025, if she had remained.
Todd is seeking unspecified "general, special and consequential damages."
Todd is represented by attorney Cass T. Casper, of the Disparti Law Group, of Chicago.