Will County Judge Harvey gets it: People have an absolute right to attend public meetings –

WILL CO. (ECWd) –

Will County Circuit Judge Harvey gets it: People have an absolute right to attend public meetings.

However, they cannot do what Wesley Township’s John Norton has done, which led to this Complaint for a Stalking / No Contact Order.

In a Plenary Hearing from an Emergency Stalking / No Contact Order at 10:30 this morning, for a Stalking/No Contact Complaint against John Norton, arguments were continued from several weeks ago and continued again after a lunch break.

After an impressive cross-examination of John Norton by Plaintiff’s Attorney, Rob Hanlon, Judge Harvey issued the following Plenary Order of Stalking / No Contact against John Norton:

• Plenary (absolute) No Contact Order issued/extended for 1 year
• Must stay 1000′ feet away from victim’s home and anywhere else she is
• MAY attend public meetings of public bodies, but must remain at least 25 feet away from the victim and have no contact with her

The text from the Circuit Clerk’s website (view pic of it here):

“Plenary order entered and extended. Order is modified to reflect
that the order shall not be construed to prohibit, encumber or
restrict the Defendant’s right to attend or participate in any open
meeting of government and Defendant must make no contact with
Plaintiff while at the meetings.”

All persons have a statutory right to attend public meetings of government in Illinois and that right cannot be easily forfeited. The right to attend a meeting is granted by the Legislature in the Open Meetings Act, and in order to prohibit a person from attending an open public meeting, a Court must strip a person of a statutory right. He was not willing to take that extraordinary remedy in this case.

Read the Stalking / No Contact Order below (or here)(we redacted the home addresses):

NORTON STALKING Order 10242019_Redacted

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