Scumbag Windy City Lawyer Jay R. Grodner was caught red handed vandalizing the parked car of a Marine about to be deployed to Iraq. Blackfive has a transcript of the police report:

Victim related to P/O that as he walked back to his vehicle, he observed the offender leaning up against his vehicle and rubbed/dragged his left arm and hand across the passenger side. As offender walked away from victim’s vehicle, victim observed a scratch along the rear trunk and passenger’s door area where offender dragged his arm and hand over. Victim and witness stopped offender and confronted him. Victim has military plates and decals on his vehicle and offender made anti war and military comments to victim. Upon P/O’s arrival to scene, offender denied scratch victim’s vehicle, but did admit to rubbing past it. Victim at this time did not sign complaint, because he is leaving tour for military duty. Offender said they accused him of scratching the car because he is Jewish. Offender’s statements/responses to P/O’s questions unreasonable.

Remember as you read up on Godner that fact, that when caught keying a car his first response is to claim that the Marine predisposed to thinking Jews keyed cars and that the police found his behavior “unreasonable” meaning of course he was seconds from getting tasered due to either screaming, flailing about or otherwise acting ridiculous.

The story gets worse however, the damage to the car was assessed at $2400 making Grodner’s little display of nutrootery a felony. Being a lawyer, Grodner is gaming the system to avoid taking responsibility:

After sending the car to the body shop, it was determined there is $2400 in damage, making this a felony. Mike went to court Friday morning to collect the damages against Mr. Grodner and file felony charges. Though the damages are over $300 (the amount which determines felony or misdemeanor) Grodner offered Mike to pay his deductible, $100, and have Mike’s insurance pay for it.

The Illinois States Attorneys tried to coerce Mike into accepting the offer. Appalled, Mike said he wanted this to be a felony. The state told Mike that it was not worth pursuing felony damage against Grodner because they don’t have the time. In addition, the state prosecutors told him that he would never it ‘would be difficult to recover the damages’ from Grodner because he is a lawyer.

Instead, the State asked Mike if he would accept probation for Grodner. Mike accepted, probation was offered to Grodner, and Grodner declined the offer, saying within ear shot of Mike, “I’m not going to make it easy on this kid”. Mike’s next court date is tomorrow, Monday, December 31st, to pursue misdemeanor charges against Grodner.

Grodner is filing continuances so that the case will be dropped once the Marine is redeployed. Gods forbid he should pony up the actual cost of the damage he caused in a fit of childish anger along with an apology.

Speaking of childish, rumor has it that Grodner’s one of those on-line dating sad sacks and this is his profile. Commenter Willie Cobbins at Urban Grounds has more supposed photos of Grodner, but as I said these are unconfirmed rumors. Though given his behavior I wouldn’t doubt it.

His website is down, and I hear that his office phones are disconnected. I haven’t checked my self but if you want to you can do so:

Jay R. Grodner
Law Offices of Jay R. Grodner
Principal Office-Deerfield
625 Deerfield Road –Suite 406
Deerfield, IL 60015
Phone: (847) 444-1500
Fax: (847) 444-0663
Downtown Chicago
30 N. LaSalle St. – Suite 1210
Chicago, IL 60602
Phone: (312) 236-1142
Fax: (312) 236-6036
Email: jayrg8@aol.com
Web: http://www.jaygrodner.com
I have 30 years experience in handling paternity cases in Illinois in Public & Private Practice starting as a prosecutor prior to the admissibility of parental blood testing.

A paternity suit lawyer. Classy.

Blackfive, Urban Grounds, and Atlas Shrugs are all blogging this. Join the fun!

Update from Jenn, via Absolute Moral Authority: Not at all shocking, but it turns out Jay Grodner is a scumbag in his professional life as well. From Citizens for Legal Responsibility, a watchdog organization for attorney misconduct:

In addition to being disciplined for being involved in a scheme to forging documents, it has been reported to CLR that attorney Jay Grodner has engaged in a conflict of interest with his clients, has abandoned his clients, has engaged in false billing, has engaged in a fraud upon his clients, provided ineffective assistance of counsel, and has engaged in a “fraud upon the court”.

Also check out this first person account of today’s hearing from a FReeper who was in the courtroom. The upshot: the judge granted Grodner a continuance.

Update #2: Bill Hennessy left a comment to let us know that he posted the decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois in a 1984 voter fraud case involving Jay R. Grodner. Unfortunately, Grodner merely received a censure, so he was not prevented from continuing his law practice. Let’s hope justice prevails and the sanctions are more fitting this time.