Cook County public defender Henry Hams has been criminally charged after police say he choked a prosecutor in a courthouse after a dispute over setting a court date for a post conviction hearing.
Police say that Hams had to be pulled off the 50-year-old assistant state’s attorney who was then treated at Mount Sinai Hospital. Hams previously held a professional boxing license. He reportedly had the prosecutor in a headlock.
Hams, 47, works in the legal resources division of the Cook County Public Defender’s office and handles post-conviction appeals and appellate court matters. He has been charged with resisting arrest and aggravated battery in a public place.
I was a deposition once where there was physical violence. Two guys literally jumped over the table at each other and started slugging (both clients). I was hiding under the table, so missed most of the “action”.
At a closing, the in house lawyer for Freddie Mac threw another lawyer up against a wall. After he left Freddie for private practice, the Freddie lawyer was ultimately disbarred, not for flinging people against the wall, but for embezzling $2M from two clients to buy his stripper mistress her own strip club.
A Public Defender’s office employee ; sounds like a work-related PTSD defense to me.
“I’m attorney Joe Hams and I will FIGHT for you!”
“Joe Hams, the know your rights, and your lefts, attorney”
The ads just write themselves.
“Police say that Hams had to be pulled off the 50-year-old assistant state’s attorney who was then treated at Mount Sinai Hospital. Hams previously held a professional boxing license. He reportedly had the prosecutor in a headlock”
Now thats what you call a”public defender”
I handled several criminal cases very early in my career, but really couldn’t get the hang of plea bargaining. Now I realize I was using the wrong techniques.
I can understand where he is coming from.
From the badly written (or poorly posted) article:
” … The public defender allegedly told a bystander he did it because he was “sick of him mocking him,” the bystander said. …”
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Well, I guess so … now everybody can mock him