From the Southern

MAAG FILES DEFAMATION LAWSUIT: FORMER SUPREME COURT CANDIDATE ASKS FOR $110 MILLION
BY JIM MUIR
THE SOUTHERN
Posted: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 7:00 AM CST
Maag
MADISON COUNTY -- Gordon E. Maag, who was defeated in November by Lloyd Karmeier in the most expensive judicial race in the nation's history, filed a $110 million defamation of character lawsuit Monday afternoon in Madison County circuit court.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity and its chairman Ronald Gidwitz along with treasurer Gregory W. Baise.
Additionally, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce is also named as a defendant. Those two agencies, along with Gidwitz and Baise, supported Karmeier in the bitterly fought election characterized by negative advertisements from both campaigns.
Maag, of Glen Carbon, is represented by East St. Louis attorney Rex Carr.
The complaint states that a campaign flyer distributed in October entitled, "Wheels of Justice," defamed and injured Maag's reputation.
The lawsuit states that the flyer/mailer alleged that Maag "let a murderer back on the streets," showed "questionable judgment" and "overturned the conviction of a sexual predator."
The complaint alleges that the Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Gidwitz and Baise published the documents "wrongfully, maliciously and with intent to defame and injure Maag in his reputation."
The lengthy lawsuit goes on to counter each allegations made in the flyer/mailer, specifically that Maag did not overturn a first-degree murder conviction and did not release a man convicted of soliciting the murder of a pregnant woman. Also, the complaint states that Maag did not release a convicted child sexual predator and also that he did not cause businesses to flee Southern Illinois, two other allegations made in the flyer/mailer.
The lawsuit states: "These false and malicious charges were meant to persuade the readers of the charges, including the voters of the Fifth District that Judge Maag was unfit to be retained on the Appellate Court, these words imputing an inability to perform and want of integrity in the discharge of duties of his office."
The lawsuit also stated that the allegations made by the defendants "held Maag up to public hatred, ridicule and contempt and by means of the publication Maag has been injured in his reputation and in his profession."
Maag also alleges in the lawsuit that he "lost, and will continue to lose, large sums of money in earnings from his prior position as an appellate court judge" along with health care benefits and pension benefits. The lawsuit also alleges that Maag, because of the flyer/mailer, "suffered personal humiliation, mental anguish and suffering.
Maag also was running for retention on the 5th District Appellate Court and was not retained.
The suit asks for $10 million in damages and $100 million in punitive damages.
The Illinois Supreme Court race between Maag, a Democrat, and Karmeier, a Republican, turned into a political slugfest. Karmeier eventually won the election after he and Maag combined to spend more than $9 million, making it the most expensive judicial race ever nationwide. The sides were clearly defined in the contest.
Karmeier was backed by the business and medical community and others advocating tort reform while Maag, a former Madison County personal injury lawyer, gained much of his support from trial lawyers who wanted to maintain the status quo within the state judicial system.
The race between the two judicial candidates also had its bizarre moments, evidenced last May by accusations made by Karmeier's staff that a political operative for Maag stole trash from a Dumpster at Sen. Dave Luechtefeld's office in Okawville. The information was taken from the Dumpster to try and prove that Luechtefeld used state computers and a state-paid intern to campaign for Karmeier.
The allegations were contained in a box full of documents anonymously dropped off at several news organizations around the state. The documents included more than 1,000 pages of e-mails, memos, telephone messages and letters, some on Luechtefeld's official Senate stationary. Karmeier and Luechtefeld are boyhood friends.
Additionally, two Southern Illinois men, Doug Wojcieszak and Tom Denton, who are both associated with Tactical Consulting in Carbondale, were named in a four-count complaint alleging that they intimidated and conspired to violate the constitutional rights of Dwight Kay, of Edwardsville, and his two minor children. Kay served as the finance chairman for Karmeier. The lawsuit was filed by Belleville attorney Stephen McGlynn, who serves as co-chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. Wojcieszak and Denton denied the allegations.
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