[Peace-discuss] Patrick Thompson Wins Small Claims Case Against “Ineffective” Attorney Harvey Welch

[Karen Medina]

Congratulations to Patrick! Hooray!
-karen medina

>   In a small claims case local black activist Patrick
>   Thompson filed against his former attorney, Harvey
>   Welch, a judge decided that legal malpractice had
>   been committed and ruled in Thompson's favor.
>   Thompson filed the suit pro se, arguing his own
>   case, while Welch was represented by Urbana attorney
>   David Rumley. The $3,000 in attorney fees that Welch
>   must pay back, Thompson says he is donating to
>   Champaign Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice, who
>   helped raise funds for his legal defense.
>
>   Thompson had hired Welch to defend him against
>   charges of sexual abuse and home invasion in a trial
>   that took place in 2006. After Welch called only one
>   witness, Thompson was found guilty. Dropping Welch,
>   Thompson hired two new attorneys, Bob Kirchner and
>   Ruth Wyman, who filed a post-trial motion to reverse
>   the guilty verdict. In a rare courtroom decision,
>   Judge Harry Clem found that Welch had provided
>   "ineffective assistance of counsel" and granted
>   Thompson a new trial. This last May, with legal
>   counsel provided by Kirchner and Wyman, a jury found
>   Thompson not guilty of the criminal charges.
>
>   Last year, Thompson filed a small claims suit
>   against Welch for return of the $3,000 he had paid
>   him in attorney fees. The key piece of evidence
>   Thompson submitted was Judge Clem's ruling that
>   Welch provided ineffective counsel. After he was
>   found not guilty, Thompson also entered this as
>   further evidence.
>
>   On August 25, 2008, Judge Holly Clemons ruled in
>   favor of Thompson. In order to determine legal
>   malpractice in a civil suit, Thompson had to prove
>   that he would have been proven innocent beyond a
>   preponderance of evidence. This was accomplished,
>   Judge Clemons ruled, when Thompson was acquitted in
>   the May 2008 trial.
>
>   Harvey Welch works as a Public Defender in Ford
>   County, but is based in Urbana and takes numerous
>   cases in Champaign County. Welch handles hundreds of
>   cases each year, and has been in practice since
>   1980. One must wonder how many of Welch's clients
>   have been found guilty because of his incompetence.
>
>   This small claims case sets an important legal
>   precedent in Illinois for other individuals wrongly
>   convicted if their decisions are reversed due to
>   ineffective counsel. As Judge Clemons herself
>   admitted, this case was "a rather unusual
>   situation." A similar case at the Champaign County
>   courthouse is unheard of in recent memory.
>
>   Welch is ordered to pay back $3,000 to Thompson, as
>   well as cover the cost of court fees.
>
>   When asked, Rumley would not confirm or deny that he
>   would appeal the decision. Welch himself was not
>   present for the final ruling.
>
>   Also absent were any other members of the local
>   media. Incidentally, at the same time as Thompson's
>   small claims case, the verdict was being announced
>   for Robert Arnette, who was found guilty of
>   murdering his wife. After reading of the verdict, I
>   spoke to several members of the local press at the
>   courthouse about the significance of Thompson's
>   victory in small claims court. Caught up in the
>   frenzy of a murder case, none of them were
>   interested in covering Thompson's case. The
>   News-Gazette's Mary Schenk had been notified about
>   past hearings in the small claims case, but not once
>   did she show up.
>
>   BD
>   --
>   Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.