CHICAGO — A Cook County judge captured on video leaving a young girl locked in a holding cell alone behind her courtroom may have done so in a “scared straight” type of disciplinary effort, sources familiar with the matter said.
Judge Jackie Portman-Brown was captured on security footage last week, her black robe swinging, as she hustled the girl forward into an empty lockup and then left her for about 10 minutes. The sources told the Chicago Tribune the child is believed to be a young relative of Portman-Brown’s.
The judge has not returned messages seeking comment.
Portman-Brown has since been removed from her post hearing adult felony cases at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. A spokesman for Chief Judge Timothy Evans said she was reassigned to administrative duties Wednesday, but did not specify the reason.
Video released to the Tribune via a public records request shows Portman-Brown and another woman with a physical hold on the young girl, marching her into the lockup, apparently by force, around midday Feb. 19.
The footage blacked out the child’s face. But sources who saw the child told the Tribune she is a girl about 6 to 8 years old and was visibly distressed.
The lockup areas behind felony courtrooms are designated for defendants in custody to wait for their cases to be called. The security footage shows it was empty during the incident — except for the child.
Portman-Brown can be seen sitting the girl down on a bench, the girl’s toes barely reaching the ground, and then walking away. A female sheriff’s deputy appeared to lock the door to the holding cell, and turned away.
After a few moments, the female deputy could be seen beckoning the child forward. The girl, who wore a pink shirt and a puffy silver coat, stepped up tentatively as the deputy leaned down and appeared to try to talk to her.
The girl appeared to fidget with her hands, as if anxious.
She was alone inside for about 10 minutes before the deputy seemed to unlock the door, taking her gently by the hand and leading her back outside.
Two sheriff’s deputies who are seen in the footage have been de-deputized and assigned to desk duty pending an internal investigation, according to a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
A spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office declined to comment on whether the office was investigating.
Portman-Brown was elected to the bench in 2008 after spending time as a county prosecutor and then as general counsel for the Independent Police Review Authority, the Chicago agency that investigated allegations of police misconduct at that time.
By turns admired and criticized for her brash personality on the bench, Portman-Brown was assigned to bond court and two specialty court calls before getting her own felony courtroom about a year ago.
One of those specialty programs, the Cook County HOPE court, ended in 2018 after outside reviews raised concerns about Portman-Brown’s temperament, Injustice Watch and City Bureau reported that year.
HOPE court, an intensive probation program, was terminated after the state yanked funding, finding that among other issues, court employees found Portman-Brown to be vindictive and bullying, the report noted.
A 2016 profile on CBS Chicago dubbed Portman-Brown “The Tough Love Judge.” It featured footage of Portman-Brown in her signature red lipstick telling defendants she is “not your typical judge.”
“If you remain in violation of your probation from this day forward, I will lock you up,” she said, her alto voice booming across the courtroom. “I. Will lock. You UP!”
In the profile, Evans, the chief judge, sang Portman-Brown’s praises, calling her “talented, capable and compassionate.”
Portman-Brown is only the most recent judge at the Leighton Criminal Court Building to find herself at the center of scandal in the past few years, though the circumstances of her removal — particularly the involvement of a young child — still shocked courthouse regulars.
Judge Joseph Claps was hit with a misdemeanor gun charge in 2018, when cameras caught what appeared to be gun falling out of his jacket in the lobby.
He was acquitted at trial a few months later when his defense successfully argued that prosecutors could not prove the object he dropped was, in fact, a firearm. Claps has since returned to the bench in his felony courtroom.
Judge Mauricio Araujo was taken off the bench the same year for allegedly insulting a female prosecutor and insinuating he may have had sex with her. Judge William Hooks returned to his bench in the building in January 2019 after briefly being reassigned and referred into anger management by superiors.
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