Chief Judge Evans To Receive Prestigious Award Reporting
Mike Flannery
November 18, 2009
CBS 2 Chicago
http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/judge.timothy.evans.2.1321199.html
CHICAGO (CBS) ― When Cook County’s Chief Judge Timothy Evans is honored at the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, it will be a landmark moment for the once-disgraced local Circuit Court. CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports.

The court system here will forever bear the burden of Operation Greylord. That federal investigation led to the conviction of 15 crooked judges and 50 corrupt lawyers.

Another judge committed suicide after it was revealed he’d been secretly recorded discussing a $10,000 bribe. In exchange for that payoff, the judge had freed a mob hit man on trial for murder.

In contrast to all that, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will present Judge Evans with the prestigious William Rehnquist Award. Evans, first elected to the court in 1992 and chief judge for the past eight years, is being honored for integrity and judicial innovation.

Evans has overseen the construction of a new Domestic Relations court house, in which victims of violence are, for the first time, offered separate accommodations. Previously, they could not avoid alleged abusers on elevators or in court room seating.

Now they can.

Evans also signed off on creation of a new Mental Health Treatment court, where the special needs of mentally ill offenders and victims are recognized.

Evans also helped to pioneer the concept of “restorative justice” in Juvenile Court. Youthful offenders are given the opportunity to work to compensate the victims of their crimes.

Following the death of Mayor Harold Washington in 1987, Evans was one of the best-known politicians in Chicago. He ran for mayor in 1989 as the candidate of the now-defunct Harold Washington Party. Evans outpolled Republican Edward R. Vrdolyak. But both men were crushed by Democrat Richard M. Daley.

“When that door closed, this door (a Circuit Court judgeship) opened,” said Evans, the first African-American to become chief judge. “That’s life. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on.”

“I do have regrets, but those regrets are not personal in nature,” Evans said. “I regret that our plans for the city didn’t go forward as we thought they might. I was very proud of what we were able to do in those days.”

At age 66, Evans said he does “not anticipate” launching another campaign for mayor. Asked to rate Mayor Daley’s performance over the past 20 years, Evans demurred: “It’s hard to do that from my vantage point. When I put on the black robe, I took off the political coat.”

The judge said his 2,800 coworkers in the court system should all share in the honor of the Rehnquist Award.

“I consider it to be a recognition of our joint, concerted effort/to ask people to settle their disputes in court and not resolve disputes in the street,” Evans said.

His now-deceased mother once told CBS 2 Evans always aimed high, even as a little boy in then-segregated, Jim Crow Arkansas.

“When he was in kindergarten, he told the class, ‘The President of the United States is what I’m gonna be.’ And the school just roared,” said “Tiny” Evans, Timothy’s late mother.

Evans is married to retired physician Thelma Evans. The couple reside in a Kenwood mansion once owned by meatpacking mogul Oscar Mayer. They have adult twin daughters, Cynthia and Catherine.