* Sun-Times…
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich will serve his prison sentence for corruption at a low-security federal prison for male prisoners near Denver, as he had requested and a judge had recommended, sources said.
The Federal Correctional Institution Englewood — about 15 miles southwest of Denver near the suburb of Littleton, Colo. — is the same prison where Larry Warner, a co-defendant in the earlier corruption case that sent former Gov. George Ryan to prison, served two years after being convicted of conspiring with Ryan to steer state contracts his way. Blagojevich’s family isn’t expected to move to be closer to him, according to one of his lawyers, Carolyn Gurland, who said Wednesday the Blagojeviches had hoped to keep the prison assignment private.
* Meanwhile, Blagojevich’s judge, James Zagel, was sharply criticized for his behavior in another case by two appellate justices this week…
Appellate Court Justice Diane Wood ripped Zagel for his handling of juror issues that arose during the lengthy racketeering trial, calling his approach “a real problem.”
Wood, who has been considered a leading candidate for the United States Supreme Court during recent vacancies, was relentless in her criticism of Judge Zagel. The justice ridiculed Zagel’s “private chats” with an alternate juror who had expressed concerns about her own safety. Wood called the chats between Zagel and the juror “very foolish” and noted that there was no written record of the meetings anywhere.
More…
U.S. Appellate Judge Diane Wood told Monday’s hearing she was troubled by accounts that trial Judge James Zagel occasionally wandered into the jury room during the 2007 trial outside the presence of attorneys.
“There’s a real problem here with how the trial judge approached it … having all these private chats with people,” she said. Wood said it meant a vital court record of just who said what to whom was “woefully” lacking.
* More…
“Don’t you find it a little remarkable that the judge was wandering in and out of the jury room?” Wood asked. “This seems to be an invitation to trouble.”
“Judge Zagel’s approach was a little foolish,” she said. Fellow judge Diane Sykes likewise wondered aloud if the juror’s “reasons for needing to be excused spilled over to the remainder of the jury.”
He’s unique, that one.
- Shore - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:23 am:
Will his hair be gray or white the next time we see him in 2024?
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:27 am:
I doubt if Zagel and Wood will be partners in the sack race at the Federal Judge Picnic.
Maybe Wood is tired of being on the Court of Appeals. She was on the short list for the last two Supreme nominations, but was passed over for Sotomayor and Kagen. If Obama gets another nomination, what are the odds that it will be another woman?
- mark walker - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:40 am:
Pretty troubling behavior for appearance purposes. Nothing to do with the verdict itself?
- dupage dan - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:53 am:
Here’s to hoping that we can be a RodFree zone after he walks thru those doors and hears the slam/click sound behind him.
- Dan Shields, Springfield, IL - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:53 am:
Please tell me this will not cause the Blagoof “legal beagles” to file another idiodic motion.
- Cook County Commoner - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:54 am:
Justice Wood is a Clinton appointee with little if any courtroom experience, but plenty of high profile clerkships. Judge Zagel is a Reagan appointee with extensive Cook County criminal court experience. This is politics and academia vs real experience.
- Edison Parker - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:59 am:
Cook County Commoner…it is neither academic or real experience for a judge to wander in and out of a jury room. You’d be hard pressed to find any Cook County lawyer who would find that “normal.”
- Readerman - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:08 pm:
== He’s unique, that one. ==
And to think after reading coverage of the Blago trials here at Cap Fax, I had this image that Zagel was as wise as Solomon himself….
- chuddery - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:20 pm:
Cook County Commoner,
A clerkship gives you quite a bit of courtroom experience given that most clerks prepare the judge for trial, write preliminary drafts of orders, and research the law to support the judge’s decision.
Obviously this varies from judge to judge but it’s ridiculous to say that clerkships give someone no courtroom experience.
- downstate commissioner - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:26 pm:
right or wrong-I hope this woman doesn’t go any further with her career. Her comments during an active case will almost surely reopen the Blago mess again. I hoped we were done with that @#$%&*.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:30 pm:
===will almost surely reopen the Blago mess again===
Why?
- Michelle Flaherty - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:37 pm:
Both the Ryan and Blagojevich trials were filled with mishaps that had everyone holding their breath. If these had been death penalty cases, we’d all be demanding new trials. But no one feels particularly sorry for either of these guys and the general feeling is they got what they deserve and a perhaps not doing background checks on jurors or a few questionable judicial procedures shouldn’t stand in the way of what we all know is the right thing to do.
- D.P. Gumby - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:38 pm:
downstate commissioner–what are you talking about. The judge was asking questions during oral argument, not random commenting during an open case. Has nothing to do w/ Blago. The Zagel behavior issues during Blago were his apparent favoring of the prosecution and whether it occurred in the presence of the jury.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 12:59 pm:
–The Zagel behavior issues during Blago were his apparent favoring of the prosecution and whether it occurred in the presence of the jury.–
A judge wandering into the jury room to visit and talk with jurors is not business as usual by any means. Jurors who didn’t catch what Zagel really thought of Blago were asleep the whole trial.
- gilder - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 1:00 pm:
Cook County Commoner - As a former student of Justice Wood’s for civil procedure, I have personally experienced her impressive knowledge and grasp of the procedural mechanics of a courtroom and roles of each party. If “extensive Cook County criminal court experience” translates into questionable and innaropriate behavior by a judge, then perhaps the Cook County criminal court system, and what Judge Zagel has learned from it, is in need of serious reform.
- zatoichi - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 2:15 pm:
Will Rod’s cell come with a nice mountain view?
- earl - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 2:15 pm:
Wood’s career should make her a perfect nomination for this administration.It would be interesting to see her trying to control the Blago trial.
- Cheswick - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 2:39 pm:
Not to go all John Grisham on everyone, but judges popping in and out of jury rooms, and other things, happens a lot in the South.
- Hunterdon - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 2:41 pm:
Let’s not forget that today was originally supposed to be Rod’s “report date” to the slammer. Due to the judge’s generousity, Blago’s got another month of freedom left.
- Meanderthal - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 2:46 pm:
I am so old as to likely be dead when Rod gets out. So I may not ever see what a gray haired Rod looks like. But you know what? I am ok with that.
- dupage dan - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 3:45 pm:
=happens a lot in the South=
I can see Herman Munster doing a Judge Zagel impression. …. so the 2 utes go into the Sack-o-Suds…..the 2 whaat?”
- Carl Nyberg - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 4:06 pm:
I despised Blago before it was cool. And I don’t don’t think Zagel should remain doing trials. His comments to the media and antics away from the jury left me thinking this wasn’t a fair trial.
Zagel’s public biases, combined with ex parte interactions with jurors seems like grounds for a mistrial to me.
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 5:27 pm:
And somewhere, the “Pope” is smiling.
- Been There - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 6:22 pm:
I agree 100% with Carl. Zagel left a lot out there to be challenged.
- Just Me - Wednesday, Feb 15, 12 @ 11:16 pm:
I giggled all day about how now Blagojevich wants privacy. Um, you put your wife on national television to eat bugs…you went on as many talk shows (and Celebrity Apprentice) as you could get yourself on to…you gave a daily mini-press conference through your talk shows…but now, NOW, you want privacy?