Opinion ID: 2995876
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Brown’s Pre-Trial Proceedings

Text: On April 17, 1991, Asst. Public Defender Camille Kozlowski was appointed to represent Brown. Six months later, on October 28, 1991, on what was to have been the date of Brown’s criminal trial, Kozlowski asked the court for a continuance in order that she might arrange for Brown to be evaluated both for “mental competency” and for “sanity.” When the judge asked why she had waited until the day of trial to raise this issue, Kozlowski replied that just that morning, Brown had informed her that Professor Thomas Geraghty, director of the Northwestern University Law Center, had previously represented Brown. Kozlowski telephoned Geraghty, who advised her 2 The defendant, Johnnie Brown, and the victim, James Brown, are not related. 6 No. 01-2326 that Brown had once been found “unfit for trial” and that while incarcerated at Menard he had received “large doses” of “psychotropic” medication. The trial judge, reluctant to grant the continuance on such short notice, was eventually persuaded by an insistent Ms. Kozlowski. She stated that after first meeting Brown, she realized that there was “something different” about him. She complained to the judge of her “difficulties” communicating with Brown, that he did “not answer some of my questions,” and that he “yelled at my law clerk.” She also told the judge that this new in- formation about Brown’s mental issues “certainly answers some of the questions that I had.” The rest of her onthe-record statements bear quoting at length, especially in light of her later prevarications: Your honor, if there is an issue of fitness or sanity, I believe justice is not going to be served unless we have that answer, an answer to that. I would apolo- gize to the Court for any inconvenience, but this is a serious case as it is a Class X case; Mr. Brown is looking at six to thirty years in the penitentiary. And I think it’s very important that we look into these issues. I am not doing this at the last minute to avoid trial, obviously, your Honor, I would only do it because this man, who is the legal assistant dean at Northwestern indicated that he—Mr. Brown—has some serious background, psychiatric background. Kozlowski concluded her supplication by notifying the judge that she had just begun to attempt to secure Brown’s “records from the Psychiatric Institute” at Menard, that the authorities there stated “they are looking for them,” and that she “just need[ed] to examine those records.” The judge granted the motion and set a status hearing for November 25, 1991, after a Behavioral Clinic fitness and sanity evaluation (BCX) could be performed. The recNo. 01-2326 7 ord reflects that Kozlowski subpoenaed Brown’s medical records from the Illinois State Penitentiary on November 1, 1991.