A Cook County divorce court judge is being sued in federal court by one of the adult children of a legally-troubled River Forest real estate developer, as the adult son has accused the judge of violating his constitutional rights by refusing to allow him to attend a court hearing via Zoom at which the judge and others were discussing his parents' long contentious divorce proceedings - proceedings which have several times resulted in the judge ordering his father to jail at his mother's request over money.
On Sept. 23, Conor Paris, in partnership with a judicial reform organization known as Children of the Court, filed suit in Chicago federal court against Cook County Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek, as well as Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez.
The lawsuit also named Cook County as a defendant, as the larger governmental organization which funds courthouse operations, other than judicial salaries. County judges are considered Illinois state employees.
The lawsuit takes aim at Judge Romanek's alleged refusal to allow Conor Paris to listen in on a recent court proceeding, conducted online using teleconference platform Zoom.
Conor Paris is a former standout student athlete at Fenwick High School in River Forest and is now over the age of 18.
However, since 2016, when he was still a minor, Conor Paris' parents, his father Frank "Marty" Paris and mother Kerry Paris, have been embroiled in emotionally-charged and longrunning legal proceedings in Cook County divorce court. Most recently, Judge Romanek has presided over the case.
According to court documents, Marty and Kerry Paris married in 2002 and have seven children, included some now over the age of 18.
The marriage was officially dissolved by order of former Cook County Judge Tim Murphy in December 2022.
However, proceedings have continued since, centered on demands that Marty Paris not only pay his ex-wife $13,000 per month in combined direct maintenance and child support, but also pay his ex-wife's attorneys' six figure legal fees.
The legal fights over those payment demands have landed Marty Paris in jail three times, when judges, including Romanek, have declared him to be in contempt of court.
Marty Paris has never been charged with or convicted of a crime.
Rather, the jailings have come at the request of Kerry Paris' attorneys, with her support.
In legal filings, Marty Paris has characterized the jailings as illegal "debtors' prison," sending him to jail as a way of forcing him to pay lump sums immediately, rather than pursuing other means to coerce payment.
Most recently, he was ordered to jail in July over a non-payment of $350,000. Marty Paris apparently paid that sum and avoided incarceration in the Cook County Jail.
However, in late 2023, Marty Paris remained in jail for weeks, until Romanek ordered him to electronic home confinement after he paid $150,000.
Marty Paris, founder and president of Sedgwick Development in Chicago, had been jailed for five days in 2017 at the order of Judge Karen Bowes, allegedly for failure to comply with orders from that judge to set aside $750,000 to pay Kerry's legal bills.
Throughout the process, Marty Paris has argued the nature of his business means that seemingly tens of millions of dollars in revenue that appear on balance sheets and income statements don't actually equate to money in his bank accounts. Rather, Marty Paris has argued those revenue figures represent "phantom income" that merely passes through his business to lenders who help to finance his company's residential building projects in Chicago and nearby suburbs.
However, judges have consistently sided with his ex-wife in finding that they believe Paris has a net worth of more than $20 million, and should be able to afford to pay off court-ordered judgments, including thousands of dollars each month in alimony and child support plus all living expenses for the homes held by his ex-wife, tens of thousands of dollars annually for his children's "activities," and millions in legal bills for attorneys who represented him and his ex-wife.
Lawyers who have backed Paris' incarceration over the unpaid bills include attorneys from the firms of Lake Toback DiDomenico and Hurst Robin Kay & Allen, who have represented Paris; and attorneys from the firms of Cronin & Co. and Angelini Ori & Abate, who have represented Kerry Paris in the proceedings.
Among others who would receive a cut of proceeds is believed to be attorney Sean Crotty, of the firm of Crotty & Schiltz.
According to court documents, Crotty has lived with Kerry Paris during the Paris divorce proceedings, and the two have been romantically involved. Crotty has been among the lawyers co-signing legal briefs urging courts to allow Marty Paris to be jailed.
Many of the divorce court proceedings since 2020 have been conducted via Zoom. During that time, such proceedings are considered to be open proceedings, no different than in courtroom.
During such remote court proceedings, participants enter a Zoom meeting ID and passcode, information publicly available on the court's website. The judge then admits participants into the meeting, with the understanding that disruptive observers can be removed.
However, according to the new lawsuit, Conor Paris attempted to join the Zoom proceedings on August 5 for a routine procedural hearing not listed as closed to the public. According to the complaint, he wished to observe the proceedings at which "his family and his family’s personal matters were discussed."
However, according to the complaint, Romanek refused to admit Conor to the hearing, allegedly "instead remarking 'Conor Paris is here. He has no business being here and he shouldn’t be here and I am not letting him in. He shouldn’t know about court dates.'”
Other observers, including The Cook County Record, were also denied access to the hearing, without explanation.
The lawsuit asserts the refusal to allow Conor Paris to observe the hearing violated his constitutional right to access the public proceedings of the court.
The lawsuit argues the judge also should not be able to avoid the lawsuit by citing the doctrine of judicial immunity, which shields judges from being sued for official decisions. Rather, the lawsuit asserts the refusal to admit was an administrative action denying a constitutional right to a non-participant.
According to the complaint, Children of the Court is a non-profit organization which seeks to promote the rights of adults whose parents divorced while they were yet minor children, called "adult beneficiaries" of family court.
According to the complaint, Children of the Court and its executive director, Edward "Coach" Weinhaus had earlier this year sent correspondence to Judge Romanek and other Cook County divorce court judges, giving notice that adult beneficiaries working with the organization would be visiting their courtrooms, and requesting the judges' assistance in the visits.
According to the complaint, only one Cook County judge, William S. Boyd, responded and agreed to work with the organization and the represented adult beneficiaries.
According to the complaint, communications from Children of the Court were "ignored" by Judge Romanek, as well as her superiors at the court, including Judge Regina A. Scannicchio and Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
Romanek has served on the Cook County bench since 2014. Her current term expires in 2026.
Scannicchio is on the ballot in November 2024, as she seeks approval from voters to be retained on the bench. In such retention questions, voters are asked to vote "Yes" to keep a judge on the bench, or "No" if they wish for the judge to be removed. Judges must receive 60% of the voter to be retained.
The lawsuit asserts Clerk Martinez has been sued as "an elected official ... responsible for ensuring that the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois is accessible to litigants and the public alike."
Martinez will no longer be clerk when her current term expires this year. She was defeated in the Democratic primary election this spring by Mariyana Spyropoulos.
Conor Paris and Children of the Court are represented in the proceedings by attorneys Adam Florek, of Florek Law, of North Caldwell, New Jersey; and Weinhaus.
Florek has clerked for the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
In a statement concerning the lawsuit, Weinhaus said: "Access to public proceedings is the only way to engender public trust in our courts. Judge Romanek apparently doesn't care.
"Adults who want to hold courts accountable are rare and judges who don't mind rarer still. Judge Boyd understands his role as a public servant."