Cynthia writes a Leter to Judge Hollis, doesn't check it out first...and it turns out to be hilarious!

From JD, the blogmeister for Sykes Probate:

This is a letter apparently CF wrote to Judge Hollis who is Gloria's bankruptcy judge and got Gloria a copy like 10 days later.  That was nice.  Now for those of you that do not know this, one party is NOT supposed to write to the court without sending a copy to all parties that have appeared in the case.  That's an unfair and unethical exparte communication.  CF's excuse is, she doesn't know Gloria's right address.  What?  CF renders Gloria penniless and homeless, a couch surfer,and now CF can't properly serve Gloria to send a letter to the judge?  Isn't that CF's problem? In any case, Gloria is apparently a couch surfer and is homeless, but has internet and efax, but CF can't be bothered with that.  Gloria is pro se so there's a lot more laxity with court rules for her.

Second funny part is the complaint CF has.  In case you didn't know, in federal court the parties are supposed to disclose to the court if they hired an atty ghostwriter.  Now, CF assumes that KD wrote the pleading she is complaining about that is "professionally drafted".  Another teeheetee on her.  Turns out it was written by one of Gloria's friends, the highly talented and behind the scenes friend of Gloria, Mr. Tim Lahrman.  I don't think Mr. Lahrman even has any college, let alone a law degree or bar admission.  But I emailed him, and he thanks CF for her honorable accusation of the pleading being drafted by a lawyer and then used in BK court.  I haven't checked to see if that's true it has been used in BK court, but anyone can write me with the document number if it was in fact actually used.  Tim works tirelessly as an untrained and rogue guardian advocate for victims of probate abuse across the country.  He is a saint and an angel.  Oh, don't get me wrong, we have had our quarrels, but he should know this.

And as for CF, you might want to check the facts before you write annoying letters.  I said the pleading only CAME from KD, he actually got it from Tim, who drafted the thing.  You could have ASKED before you drafted up this piece of untrue junk.

And finally, while the ABA has published several articles on pro se parties and their hired attorneys having to inform the court if their pleadings were drafted by a professional, there is no such requirement in Illinois state court, nor is there any requirement that a pro se litigant disclose the writings and musings they find on a blog!  A blog is public, anyone can use the contents, (if not a copyright issue), but legal documents and forms cannot be copyrighted.  That's right, the work product of lawyers is specifically excluded from copyright law.

Now for the junky patently untrue letter.

Cynthia R. Farenga/ Attorney at Law/ 1601 Sherman #200/ Evanston, Il 60201/

Ph.    847.475.1300 / fax 847.866.8885 / cfarenga@comcast.net

March 19, 2012

Hon.  Pamela  Hollis
U. S Bankruptcy Court
219 S. Dearborn #644
Chicago, Il 60604

Re: Kenneth Ditkowsky involvement in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case  No. 11 B 39831 Gloria Jean Sykes Debtor in Possession

Dear Judge Hollis:

I am one of the Guardians ad Litem for Mary G. Sykes in her guardianship estate captioned “Mary G. Sykes, a disabled person”, which is administered in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. My involvement in this matter is as one of several defendants in Gloria Jean Sykes  v. Toerpe et al, Adversary proceeding No. 11-02689.

Several court appearances ago, the Court expressed concern as to whether attorney Kenneth Ditkowsky was representing Ms. Sykes in her bankruptcy. She was initially represented by Jeffrey Esser, who was given leave to withdraw. Thereafter, her pleadings state she is filing pro se, including in the relevant document, “Memorandum of Gloria Sykes,”  which has been published o n the marygsykes.blogspot.com website.  As I recall, the Court’s concern arose from the use of Mr. Ditkowsky’s federal electronic filing account to file one of Ms. Sykes’ pleadings. The Court directed Mr. Ditkowsky to appear before the Court to describe his involvement, if any, in the bankruptcy case. He stated that he was not involved at all in representing  Ms. Sykes in the instant matter.  At that time, the Court asked to be notified if contrary information s was discovered about Mr. Ditkowsky’s involvement in Gloria Sykes’ bankruptcy case. The Court admonished him as to the possible loss of his electronic filing privileges if he had misrepresented his involvement in the case.

It has come to my attention that Mr. Ditkowsky may have authored significant portions of Ms. Sykes’ bankruptcy pleading, “Memorandum of Gloria Sykes.” `As I am not authorized to investigate this matter,  I have enclosed copies of the blog posts,  which I think can reasonably be interpreted to suggest Mr. Ditkowsky’s involvement.  I am not sure how to bring the matter to the Court’s attention other than by this letter, (a copy of which has been sent to Gloria Sykes).

To explain the connection between the two relevant blogs on which the Memorandum is discussed/posted:  attorney JoAnne Denison established two blogs relating to Mary Sykes’ guardianship, namely, marygsykes.blogspot.com and marygsykes.wordpress.com.  Ms. Denison, Mr. Ditkowsky and Gloria Sykes know each other and have been involved in various aspects of Mary’s guardianship estate since almost as soon as it was established. On 11/23/11, Ms. Denison posted a “Memorandum of Judgment” on the blogspot site titled “Info for Bankruptcy Court from Mr. Ken Ditkowsky, J.D., an Ill. Licensed attorney. On the same date on the wordpress site she described the Memorandum as “From Mr. Ken Ditkowsky, an Illinois attorney…His draft to the bankruptcy court. Please click on the above to see what he has written to help Gloria. Excellent job.”   Blank spaces on the draft pleading allowed Gloria Sykes to fill in personal information.  In terms of authenticating the authorship, a reading of the entire blog reveals that Mr. Ditkowsky himself has posted entries, leading one to conclude that he is aware of Ms. Denison’s prior posting of the draft Memorandum. Moreover, he and Ms. Denison have jointly posted entries on her blog(s).

I hope it has been appropriate to bring this matter to the Court’s attention.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance.

Very truly yours,

Cynthia R. Farenga

Enc:  marygsykes.wordpress.com d. 11/23/11    one page
Marygsykes.blogspot.com     d. 11/23/1     three pages

Cynthia Farenga

My Repsonse;

Mr. Ditkowsky is 75 years old.  He has no idea about how to access or read a post, or subscribe to a blog, etc.  He actually told me that as far as he was concerned, "a post is something you hitch a horse to."

So I will apologize to Tim for stealing his thunder inadvertently.

And I also have to question the other dumb assumption that KD was hired to write pleadings for Gloria from a blog.  CF knows that Gloria has no money.  She was part of the plan to render Gloria homeless and penniless, via Gloria's sister, Carolyn and secret away Mary G to a remote location and isolate her. She knows that KD and I am helping Gloria without payment.  Where did she get the idea that KD was a hired ghostwriter for her pleadings in BK?  Did she ask?  Did she first make a reasonable inquiry?

No.

So, like Roseanne Roseannadanna, I guess her final response to all of this is "nevermind."

The real question is, if and when she will tell Judge Hollis it turns out that Tim Lahrman, someone who is not an attorney, and I know has not gone to law school, has drafted the pleading in question.  We know she reads this blog regularly from the letter itself. And I supposed Gloria could send it to her, but we all have better things to do, I think.

I'll think about it and let ya all know.

JoAnne Denison

Legal Disclaimer--
Although this is obvious, no person in this blog has been accused of any wrongdoing, crime or even arrested unless stated otherwise from a website reporting actual arrests and convictions. We are stating our opinions and we have the right to do this. Only the particular author is responsible for his or her content. (So don’t blame me if you dislike some posts from someone else. This site is newsworthy because it is picked up automatically by many other blogs and is therefore protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Illinois State Constitution and violations will be taken seriously with charges under the Illinois Citizens Participation Act. We ARE participating in government here–we are lawyers trying to make a difference to make things better for grandma and grandpa. We don’t care how much money you’re making–directly or indirectly from Probate or a nursing home or home health care wired-in business. Do yourself a favor and get a different job, it’s not worth it.  And if you're someone filing ARDC complaints against this blog, we are all exercising our rights to disseminate important news to protect the rights of the elderly and respect their wishes.  Again, go get another job--it's not worth it.

And for this post only, if you don't like something on this blog and feel an urge to write a letter to a court, you might want to have me check it out first for errors and misunderstandings.  This is a blog.  It reflects the musings, thoughts, IMHO's and all sorts of streams of consciousness of the individuals contributing to it.  We have the right to do this under the US and Illinois Consitutions and there is latitude in publications of newsworthy importance.  We are now up to 1800 views on this website alone (I have not found the stats on the Blogger website, I assume they do not have them).  Perhaps I need to say that this blog is primarily for entertainment purposes only and please don't file any pleadings in court without checking with me for errors.  And I promise not to charge CF or AS more than my published hourly rate of $300 per hour.  We take credit cards and paypal on our website.  Another teeheehee.

PS--with respect to the accusation that KD "let" Gloria file something using his Pacer BK access, respectfully Judge Hollis was mistaken.  But then again, KD should have argued the rule.  The rule regarding Pacer filings is that the attorney can let others use the account as long as he agrees with the filing and that the filing complies with Rule 11 and that means it isn't being done to harass, annoy,  delay or needlessly multiply the proceedings.  There was nothing wrong with what KD did.  Gloria needs help and lawyers should ALWAYS help out those that are penniless and want their side of the case heard so that justice might be done.  Gloria, I now have BK pacer access and I would be pleased to help you out with any, valid reasonable pleading.  I have no problem uploading a memo at the same time, citing the real rule, that you are penniless and need help and that all lawyers have a duty to help out those that are in need and load up stuff on Pacer for them.