Attorney accused of prostitution drops lawsuit over nude photos
Caption
Reema
Bajaj DOB: 11/21/85
SYCAMORE – The 28-year-old former DeKalb County
attorney who admitted to prostitution dropped her lawsuit alleging former
State's Attorney Clay Campbell and her former defense attorney showed other
attorneys nude photographs of her.
On Tuesday, an attorney for Reema "Nicki" Bajaj
agreed to drop the lawsuit without the possibility of refiling it. The lawsuit
had named defense attorney Timothy W. Johnson, Campbell and an unidentified
assistant state's attorney, who only was identified in court records as a white
man.
Bajaj, who now works as an office manager, decided
to drop the lawsuit to avoid bringing up unhappy memories, said Bajaj's
attorney, Amanda T. Adams.
"Ms. Bajaj is moving on with her life," said Adams.
"She is in a new profession."
In the lawsuit, Bajaj claimed Johnson showed other
attorneys nude photographs of her that he received through the police
investigation into allegations that two men paid her for sex or to perform sex
acts from 2005 through January 2011. Bajaj hired Johnson on May 11, 2011, and
about three weeks later, Johnson showed other local attorneys the nude
photographs in the lawyers' lounge at the courthouse in Sycamore, the lawsuit
alleged.
The lawsuit also claimed that Campbell distributed
copies of the nude photographs outside a courtroom about June 1, 2011.
But William Hotopp, an attorney for Johnson and
Campbell, said the two never had copies of the photographs. Instead, Bajaj hired
a different defense attorney on June 6, 2011, and that defense attorney received
copies of the photographs from the prosecutor on June 15, 2011, Hotopp said.
Moreover, any emotional distress or financial
impact Bajaj experienced was caused by her creating an online profile for
prostitution and being charged with a crime, Hotopp said. Hotopp said he plans
to ask a judge to order Bajaj and Adams to cover Johnson's and Campbell's
attorney fees for allegedly filing a frivolous lawsuit.
But Adams said neither she nor Bajaj knew whether
the people who told them Johnson and Campbell had shared the photographs were
correct.
"Whether those people were telling the truth or not
would have been a matter to decide at trial," Adams said.
The lawsuit isn't the last issue Bajaj has to
resolve regarding the prostitution allegations. She pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor prostitution in June 2012 and is serving two years of court
supervision, which mean a conviction won't go on her record if she successfully
finishes the term.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Attorney Registration and
Disciplinary Commission brought ethics charges against her for allegedly using
an alias when she engaged in prostitution and lying to investigators and
commission officials about it, records show.
Bajaj has agreed to have her law license suspended
for three years, a deal a hearing board accepted Dec. 12, said James Grogan, a
spokesman for the disciplinary commission. Illinois Supreme Court justices are
expected to consider the deal in January; it won't be official until a majority
of the justices approve it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting.
Your comment will be held for approval by the blog owner.