Circuit Court of Cook County Law Division Judge William Maddux blatantly violates
constitutional rights of litigants and runs the Circuit Court of Cook County Law Division
as a criminal enterprise to enrich the County of Cook Circuit Court Clerk’s Office and
Sheriff’s Office. He requires indigent plaintiffs to pay-to-play in regards to enforcing
their rights to redress of grievances by filing a suit.

All persons have a First Amendment Right to “Redress of Grievances.” This means you
can go to court and file a suit for damages when you are harmed by someone else’s
actions. The United States Supreme Court has even ruled that a court must waive fees
when a person is too poor to pay the filing fees (indigent) and would be denied of this
right if the fees were not waived.

Judge Maddux has an unwritten policy that only He (the “GREAT OZ”) can decide
petitions for indigency status in the Law Division. He has informed ALL the other Law
Division judges to refer all indigency petitions to his courtroom. If a person asks a clerk
for the “procedure” to file an indigency petition they will only be given a form called a
petition to sue or defend as an indigent person. When the person goes to the courtroom
2005 at the Daley Center where The GREAT OZ presides he is told that the judge only
accepts petitions for indigency at 11:30 a.m. each day. If the person arrives later, they are
told to come back another day.

The GREAT OZ leaves the bench and REFUSES to question the petitioner or answer any
questions of the petitioner. He has one of his four clerks (usually a balding man about 45
yr old with glasses [“glasses”]), who refuses to identify himself as do the other of the four
clerks who I’ll call (“bald large fat man”, “salt and pepper hair”, and thing young bald
man”) bring the petitions to his chambers. The GREAT OZ makes petitioners come at
11:30 to inconvenience them. He or his clerks refuse to tell the petitioner when the
decision will be made on their petition. Instead they always make the petitions wait in the
courtroom and miss lunch (even if they are handicapped and need regular meal times). A
decision is written and the petitions are given to Glasses, who walks into the courtroom at
between 12:30 and 1:30. He then REFUSES to return the papers to the petitioner.

Cook County and I presume elsewhere for the judge to immediately sign his orders
regarding motions or petitions for that day, or announce on the record that he will take the
issue under advisement and issue a written order on another date to be delivered by the
clerk to the litigant. As the GREAT OZ (or his law clerk – which is an illegal act) by 1:30
has made his determination if the person is indigent from the affidavit of the petitioner
and written an order either to grant or deny the petition for indigency, Glasses is
OBLIGATED by law to immediately return the petition and order to the petitioner.

Glasses instead hands the papers to a clerk, who appears in the courtroom (refuses to ID himself but I later found out his name was John, [“John”]) and instructs him to take them down to room 801 at the Clerk’s office and instructs petitioners to follow him. John in

801 tells the petitioners to wait in the line for filing papers, which puzzles the petitioners as their papers have been removed from their possession and deposited behind the clerks who are accepting filings for the day in the Law Division.

It is my contention that the clerk and the judges have no legal authority to steal these
documents by removing them from the courtroom instead of returning them to the
petitioner. This is a violation of not only statute but of standard procedures in all
courtrooms.

On April 1, 2009 I went to Judge Budzinski for a status hearing on a case that I had filed
and for which I paid the fee. I paid the fee using borrowed money, although I am indigent
on food stamps in order to avoid going to The GREAT OZ before I filed the complaint for
a waiver of fees. The GREAT OZ appears to have as a policy the practice of illegally
denying indigency petitions for legitimate suits of persons because they dress too well,
look too wealthy, filed a suit against the state (including the judge’s friends) or have filed
suit too often according to his whim. As judges are required to give specific reasons to
deny indigent petitions and they are required to grant indigent petitions to persons who
are below the poverty level or on government assistance, the GREAT OZ’s orders
denying such petitions are legally void as he states only that the petitioner “cannot sue in
good faith” as the reason to deny the petition. Statutes require more specific reasons for
denying an indigency petition, 735 ILCS 5/5-105(d) (“If the application is denied, the
court shall enter an order to that effect stating the specific reasons for the denial.”).
Statute requires granting of indigency petitions (735 ILCS 5/5-105(b)) when the person
meets the criteria of poverty as defined by law (735 ILCS 5/5-105(a)(2)). Granting or
denying indigency petitions are administrative and not judicial acts as they do not involve
judicial discretion. They must be granted if the petitioner meets statutory criteria to be
defined as indigent (735 ILCS 5/5-105(a)(2)).

The GREAT OZ almost always does this without basis for a half dozen persons, I am
aware of, who continue to file multiple legitimate civil suits against officials for failing to
do their jobs and violating civil rights, among other matters, if a person has filed more
than one indigency petition. The GREAT OZ illegally denied my petition for a suit I filed
against several police officers on October 2, 2008. This is a legitimate suit that is not
frivolous in any manner. The Circuit Court Clerk of Cook County then illegally refused
to file the complaint in violation of statute that requires filing if the complaint is
accompanied by an indigency petition whether or not it is approved (735 ILCS 5/5-
105(e). I appealed this to the Illinois Supreme Court who violated their oaths of office to
enforce this law and denied leave to file this mandamus action against The GREAT OZ. I
am now appealing it to the United States Supreme Court and publicizing this illegal
conduct of The GREAT OZ on the Internet and with the press as it denies my First
Amendment right to redress of grievances and my right to have fees waived if indigent!
The courts in Illinois are corrupt from stem to stern and follow no law but their own.

I also complained to Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans stating that as administrator of the courts he should intervene and ORDER The GREAT OZ to cease and desist illegally denying indigent petitions and order the clerk to file the

complaint she refused to file in October 2008 retroactive to that date (nunc pro tunc).
Chief Judge Evans wrote me that this was not within his powers as he cannot
administratively interfere with another judge. This is nonsense. Judge Evans is
committing theft of honest services by refusing to do his job as an administrator of the
court, as well as is guilty of conspiracy with The GREAT OZ to violate rights under color
of law. The First Amendment to the Constitution grants the right to redress of grievances
and the United States Supreme Court has previously ruled that a court must grant waiver
of fees to indigents in order to enforce this right. Judge Evans has the power to remove
The GREAT OZ as presiding judge of the Law Division. He can himself, as the
administrator, take administrative action and sue sponte retroactively grant my indigency
petition as well as order the complaint filed. As this is an administrative action, it does
not interfere with the discretion of another judge in a case.

On April 1, 2009, I handed Judge Budzinski a petition for indigency status so I could get
the fees waived for service of the summons by the Sheriff’s office ($60 per defendant).
Judge Budzinski said she could not rule on the petition and that it had to be heard by The
GREAT OZ. I told Judge Budzinski that she had legal authority to rule on the petition and
she admitted that but said it was The GREAT OZ’s order that ONLY HE can rule on
indigency petitions. Judge Budzinski signed an order transferring the petition to the

There is NO statute, Supreme Court rule, Circuit Court rule, or local court rule, nor
written policy in the Law Division that denies a judge the right to rule on an indigency
petition. The GREAT OZ is a narcissistic, arrogant, micromanaging control freak, with
bias against pro se litigants. I specifically requested Judge Evans to send me a copy of
any rule or policy that ONLY the GREAT OZ can grant indigency petitions. Judge Evans
has failed to send me any such document.

I went to The GREAT OZ’ courtroom and told the salt and pepper clerk that I had already
filed the complaint and that Judge Budzinski signed an order that the petition for
indigency was transferred instanter to The GREAT OZ. I showed him both the date
stamped complaint and the date stamped and signed order from Budzinski. He said I
should wait to 11:30. Finally at about noon Glasses told all with indigency petitions to
bring their petitions to him after The GREAT OZ left the bench. My petition was
accompanied by my personal pro se counsel’s court file consisting of Judge

Budzinski”s order and my copy of the filed and time-stamped complaint – I
specifically had told Salt and Pepper that these were my documents which must be
immediately returned to me and do not need to be filed with the Clerk of the Court.

The GREAT OZ them makes every one wait through lunch with no idea when he will
return the petitions so we can’t leave the room (this is inappropriate to hassle and a
failure to accommodate a disabled person like me who needs to eat at regular times in
order to sustain health and rude to others to make them miss lunch or postpone lunch).