Posted on 02/28/2005 7:12:08 PM PST by HAL9000
CHICAGO (AP) -- Authorities found two bodies at the home of a federal judge Monday night, and Chicago police and the FBI were investigating.The bodies were found at the home of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, but the judge was uninjured, police spokesman Patrick Camden said.
He declined to elaborate.
FBI agents were assisting police but would provide no details.
Now that was a good line.
You were the first to solve the case.
Isn't it amazing. Freeprs know answers while the FBI is dicking around.
_______________________
You don't think that MAYBE they were onto it and just hadn't told us yet?
I have forgotten all this from my ancient college years.
Thanks for the link. Good thought...
Oh my what a terrible thing. Prayers for this poor woman and her family.
Nah, {just kidding}
I believe it was a case denying his license to practice law. Hale is no friend of mine. Many were granted their license to practice law for the left, who received a pass on their political and social beliefs. Kuby, Clark and the bitch that was aiding the terrorists delivering messages to their muzlims in arms. As to the two dead bodies case solved, " White Right Wing Militia Ultra Para Mobile Shock Troops Are The Perps." I do hope the chips fall where they may in this case and justice for all prevail. NSNR
Oh, how horrible! Was it robbery, do they know?
Damn!!!! Some how I figured she had to be a klintoon buffon. Hale was not of the appropriate political mind-set for slick&the judge. Hale should have apppealed to the Supreme Court for a decision on receiving his law license. I would have to presume Hale forgot that you do not threaten the life of a federal judge verbally in America. His mouth helped him receive, "unintended consequences." NSNR
CHICAGO Mar 1, 2005 — A federal judge, who was once the target of a failed murder plot by a white supremacist, returned home from work to find two bodies inside her home.
U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow on Monday stumbled across the bodies of her husband, attorney Michael F. Lefkow, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, 89, who was visiting from Denver, according to Tuesday's editions of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.
Authorities gave no indication whether the two deaths were related to Judge Lefkow's involvement in the case of an Illinois white supremacist who was convicted last year of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill her.
Michael Lefkow, 64, and Humphrey were each shot in the head, according to the Tribune, which cited unnamed sources. No weapon was found but authorities did recover two .22 caliber casings, the newspaper reported.
Members of a Chicago police forensics team could be seen inside the two-story Lefkow home wearing white clothing and surgical-style headgear late Monday evening.
FBI spokesman Ross Rice confirmed that agents had been called in to help with the investigation but provided no further details. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said he would have no comment.
The Lefkows, whose home is on a tree-lined street, were active in the Episcopal church.
"This is a real shock. I'm really saddened and outraged. I hope the people responsible will be apprehended soon," said William Persell, bishop of the Chicago Diocese of the Episcopal Church.
Neighbors described the Lefkows as a model family. "This is someone who adored his daughters," Nan Sullivan said. "They were the kind of family everyone aspires to be, very close-knit, very supportive."
Lefkow received police protection after white supremacist Matthew Hale was arrested in 2003. Prosecutors alleged that he was angry after Lefkow ruled that he could no longer use the name World Church of the Creator for his group because another organization had a copyright on that name.
CUT http://wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=37563
Hale, 33, is currently awaiting sentencing.
Hale's conviction came almost five years after he first attracted national attention when a follower, Benjamin Smith, went on a deadly shooting rampage, targeting minorities in Illinois and Indiana.
Hale's reaction to Smith's three-day shooting spree — Hale laughed about it and imitated gunfire in secretly recorded tapes played for the jury — was part of the prosecution's case. Smith killed two people and wounded nine others before killing himself in July 1999 as police closed in.
Hale never testified during his two-week trial. His defense attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, called no witnesses, saying the prosecution's evidence was the weakest he had seen in a major case. The defense argued that Hale never asked anyone to kill the judge.
Lefkow, 61, served as a federal magistrate and a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge before President Clinton nominated her for the District Court bench in 2000.
Michael Lefkow was a graduate of North Central College in Naperville and earned a law degree from Northwestern University. The two married in 1975, and he ran unsuccessfully for Cook County judge in 2002, according the Tribune.
Nope.
Victim, judge `very close'
By Matt O'Connor and Todd Lighty, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Oscar Avila, Carlos Sadovi, Ana Beatriz Cholo and Rex W. Huppke contributed to this report
Published March 1, 2005
Joan and Michael Lefkow have been part of the Chicago legal community for more than three decades and, according to one close friend, lived a storybook life.
Very much in love--neighbors often saw them together, holding hands--the two managed to make time in their lives for their four daughters while at the same time growing their careers.
"Their relationship goes back years and years and they've just been this very, very close couple, totally dedicated to each other and to their kids," said Dick Hess, an attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, where Michael Lefkow worked in the early 1970s handling civil rights cases.
Friends described Michael Lefkow as a passionate attorney who felt compelled to fight for the underdog throughout his career.
"He was a spiritual person," Hess said. "I think [he was] just a person who kind of has a clear vision of right and wrong and always believed that he would fight for what was right."
Chicago attorney Barbara L. Holcomb knew Michael Lefkow, 64, for about 20 years.
"This is such horrible news," she said late Monday. "Mike was one of the most decent and honorable people I ever met."
Describing Lefkow as "just a very engaging guy," Chicago Reader senior editor Mike Miner, a friend since the late '70s, recalled that Lefkow enjoyed flamenco music.
According to Lefkow's personal biography posted on his law office Web site, his parents were law school classmates, and he was the third of seven children.
Lefkow obtained his bachelor's degree in history in 1962 from North Central College in Naperville and earned his law degree in 1966 from Northwestern University, where his wife also attended law school.
During college, he worked a variety of jobs, working as a grocery store clerk, a bus driver, a substitute teacher, a welfare caseworker and a taxi driver. Eventually, Lefkow opened his own practice in Chicago, specializing in employment law.
Neighbors said the Lefkows were friendly and always willing to get involved in block parties and other events. Michael Lefkow recently helped shovel snow in front of several homes.
Their lives changed sharply in 2003 when Matthew Hale, the 33-year-old founder of the World Church of the Creator, was charged with soliciting Judge Joan Lefkow's murder a month after she had held him in contempt of court on a separate civil suit.
After Hale's arrest, Lefkow, 61, chose to stay on as the judge over the lawsuit that had so engendered Hale's hatred. Despite the alleged death threats, the judge said removing herself from the case would only pass along Hale's hatred to another judge.
Kathleen Markle, a neighbor, said the Lefkows did not talk about the threats. Several neighbors said they didn't notice the threats affect their lives. "Even when the police were watching them, they went about their own business," Markle said. "We would see him walk to the `L' or jump in a taxi and I would see him shop at Jewel by himself."
Hess, who had lunch with Michael Lefkow a couple of weeks ago, said the family had not expressed any security concerns. "Everything seemed great," Hess said.
Ilana Rovner, a federal appeals judge in Chicago, said she has known Joan Lefkow since 1975. "They were a loving couple," Rovner said. "You always saw them together and holding hands."
In court, Joan Lefkow is soft-spoken and shows deep concern for the welfare of defendants. She is known to get personal at sentencings.
During a sentencing last September, Lefkow rebuked an ex-supervisor at a secretary of state licensing facility for passing unqualified motorists on road tests.
"I have four children who are out on the highway," Lefkow told Fernando Murillo in sentencing him to 15 months in prison.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0503010122mar01,1,5005962.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
Thank you for posting that updated article. At first I thought it was a professional hit - .22's to the head. But leaving the shell casings at the scene seems less than professional.
The horror of Judge Lefkow finding her husband and mother murdered in her home is unfathomable. Prayers to her and her family.
The women just lost her husband and mom.
You could not be a bigger jerk. You need to be slapped repeatedly.
Rank and Organization: Private, U.S. Army, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division.
Place and Date On New Georgia, Solomon Islands, 31 July 1943.
Entered Service at: Clyde, Ohio.
Birth: Tiffin, Ohio.
G.O. No.: 3, 6 January 1944.
On 31 July 1943, the infantry company of which Pvt. Young was a member, was ordered to make a limited withdrawal from the battle line in order to adjust the battalion's position for the night. At this time, Pvt. Young's platoon was engaged with the enemy in a dense jungle where observation was very limited. The platoon suddenly was pinned down by intense fire from a Japanese machinegun concealed on higher ground only 75 yards away. The initial burst wounded Pvt. Young. As the platoon started to obey the order to withdraw, Pvt. Young called out that he could see the enemy emplacement, whereupon he started creeping toward it. Another burst from the machinegun wounded him the second time. Despite the wounds, he continued his heroic advance, attracting enemy fire and answering with rifle fire. When he was close enough to his objective, he began throwing handgrenades, and while doing so was hit again and killed. Pvt. Young's bold action in closing with this Japanese pillbox and thus diverting its fire, permitted his platoon to disengage itself, without loss, and was responsible for several enemy casualties.
My son lived in Montana for a while and said there was a group who not only acted above the law, but repeatedly threatened anyone who was part of the system.....It was one of the first things that came to mind when this thread was posted.....
On the other hand, it's the obviously. Maybe the culprit was not part of that group at all. We do not know who doesn't like her husband.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.