Chicago Judge Unleashes Scathing Attack on Activist Post Reporter

By Janet Phelan

In my years as a reporter, I have seldom seen such a legal assault launched against an individual as is being inflicted on Dean Sallas. I WANTS YOUR HOUSE, I WANTS YOUR WIFE, I WANTS YOUR CAR, I WANTS YOUR LIFE – Activist Post

In what appears to be an effort to reduce the 85-year-old former real estate wheeler and dealer to utter pennilessness, Cook County judges are ignoring the law, ignoring his property rights and obliterating his marital union with his guardianized wife, Amy Sallas.

Dean Sallas is a veteran. He served from 1960-66 in the US Army, with the Combat Engineers and also with the Army Post office. He had a security clearance and was honorably discharged in 1966. Without any verified allegations of abuse, he has been denied any access to his wife of over fifty years (Amy Sallas is under a guardianship) and is facing eviction from his Skokie home of 47 years, due to the actions of the Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert.

On Monday, in Cook County court room 1409, Judge Regina Mescall launched an amazing verbal assault on this reporter for the questions tendered, specifically, surrounding her conduct in the Sallas matter. Judge Mescall is presiding over what has been known as “the condo case,” as efforts have been launched to remove ownership of the condo owned by Dean Sallas on Dearborn Parkway in Chicago’s “Gold Coast” and rented out by him to the same tenant for over 40 years.

Judge Regina Mescall – source: Illinois Latino Judges Association

Per review of the records, Sallas is current on all association and related fees, though this is under dispute in the court. In addition, Sallas is no longer receiving the rent from the condo, which is, by court order, now going to the condo association. Neither Sallas nor his attorney attended the hearing depriving him of the rental income because Judge Mescall sealed the case and notice of hearing was apparently not given to him.

In fact, it appears that Judge Mescall also ignored the Sallas jury demand and was holding “secret” hearings without so informing the defendant, Dean Sallas or his attorney. The case was ordered unsealed this past July but as of 9/14/2022 is still not found on the court website.

In an email dated September 14, 2022, Cook County media representative Elizabeth Smith confirmed that the case is still sealed.

“Hello Ms. Phelan,

You’re welcome, the case is a sealed civil that is why you are having trouble finding it,” she said.

On Monday during court, Judge Mescall blasted this reporter, stating that “(Janet’s) behavior teeters on the illegal” and that “she is trying to intimidate the court.”

All told, Mescall’s diatribe concerning this reporter lasted about twenty minutes.

Her accusations of “illegal” misconduct apparently relate to a correspondence in which this reporter attempted to determine if Regina Mescall was married, and also questioned some details as to her mortgage history. Indeed, this reporter contacted Regina Mescall’s husband, who is an attorney with Cook County, with these questions.

Apparently, this is criminal conduct in Cook County, Illinois.

Here is the email, sent to Mescall’s husband, Peter Kramer, which apparently initiated this attack by Mescall: The first email was sent to Kramer’s work place, which is the Cook County Sheriff, where he is legal counsel:

“I am a reporter with Activist Post and am working on a story about Judge Regina Mescall. I see from her bio that she is married to an attorney named Peter Kramer. I just wanted to reach out and confirm that her husband would be the same Peter Kramer who is listed as working for the Sheriff.

Thanks so much!

Janet Phelan

Contributing Reporter
Activist Post”

The response from the Sheriff advised me to contact Kramer or Mescall with these questions. My subsequent email, archived below, was sent to Peter Kramer at his Cook County email address on July 11, 2022:

“Mr. Kramer,

I looked at the Mescall/Kramer loan history on the Cook County Grantor/Grantee index and I have some questions. I have attached the raw data to this email.

There has been mounting concern that home loans are being used to pay-off or bribe compliant public officials, most notably judges and prosecutors. Pursuant to that concern, I have some questions as to the loan history of the Mescall/Kramers.

First of all, I see that some early loans were paid back with astonishing rapidity. The 07 and 09 loans were paid back each within a year and a half. Given the income of the couple at that time, this seems quite unusual. Could you please explain this?

I also see where the loan taken out on the purchase of the current home, for $440,000, was paid back within 7 years, in 2021. However, subsequent loans were then taken out, one for $178,762 and the very next year, one for $383,000.

What are these loans for? Are you able to produce cancelled checks showing that either you or your wife paid these loans back?

To clarify some of my concerns about Judge Mescall, I must note that she is taking illegal action in at least one case. She sealed the Sallas condo case with no legal reason to do so and then proceeded to hold hearings in this case without notifying the defendant. What in the world is she doing?

I would appreciate hearing back from you at your earliest convenience. Thank you,

Janet Phelan”

The attached data to this email is reproduced here:

This is the breakdown:

Currently the Mescall/Kramers have $561,762 in outstanding loans (They reportedly purchased their home in 2014 for $570,000, AND TOOK OUT A LOAN AT THAT TIME FOR $440,000, WHICH WAS PAID OFF IN 7 YEARS).

MORT 2021 $383,000 NO RELEASE
MORT 4/28/19 $178,762 NO RELEASE
MORT 8/01/2014 $440,000 RELEASED ON 4/06/21 (THEY PURCHASED THEIR CURRENT HOME IN 2014) (7 YEARS TO PAY OFF)
MORT 8/03/2010 $283,800 RELEASED ON 9/03/2014 (FOUR YEARS TO PAY OFF)
MORT 2/13/09 FOR $294,000 RELEASED ON 8/06/2010 (ONE AND A HALF YEARS TO PAY OFF)
MORT 10/11/07 FOR $288,750 RELEASED ON 3/18/2009 (ONE AND A HALF YEARS TO PAY OFF)

In a court hearing on Monday, Judge Mescall read the email in its entirety to the courtroom, as well as Mr. Kramer’s response — which did not include any cancelled checks to prove that these loans were paid back by the Mescall/Kramers — but rather included details on how loans are refinanced.

In what appears to be a further attack on the press, this reporter was denied access to the Monday hearing, which was held via Zoom. Another reporter, Ed Vallejo, also was denied access. There did not appear to be any press in the Monday hearing.

Requesting anonymity, an individual who was present in the virtual courtroom indicated that Judge Mescall went to some lengths to restrict access to this hearing, writing that: “but it turns out that login ID is wrong. the judge is using a secret login ID and password that is not on the internet. you can write about that one…. and BTW you do NOT know me.”

Judge Mescall denies that anyone was refused access. In an email from Mary Wisniewski, the media representative for the Chief Judge’s office with Cook County court, she states she contacted Judge Mescall with my concerns as to Monday’s hearing being “secret” and relayed this response:

“Hello,

Judge Mescall said she did not prevent anyone from zooming into 1409.

Sincerely,

Mary Wisniewski
Director of Communications
Office of the Chief Judge
Cook County Circuit Court
Mobile phone: 1-312-257-4549″

Mescall has also denied that the she held “secret hearings” in the Sallas case, and that hearings took place without Sallas or his attorney being noticed. In fact, an ex parte hearing was held earlier this year and the condo association was granted an order of possession without notice to Sallas counsel, who is Diana Vizcaino, or to Sallas himself, according to their allegations.

This order of possession appears to have been granted on or around the end of May of 2022. It is not possible to verify this on the court docket as the case has been sealed by Judge Mescall. Pinch-hitting for Judge Mescall, Judge Eileen O’Connor ordered the case unsealed in a hearing on July 12, 2022. However, the case is still not available on the online docket.

The fact that the case is sealed has resulted in further problems for Sallas and his attorney, as they are stating that they are not receiving notice of hearings and cannot check the status of the case online.

In the hearing on Monday, Judge Mescall denied that there was any problem with notice or viewing the case docket, stating that even those representing themselves have full access to the court docket, thereby ignoring the glaring fact that an order of possession was granted in a hearing without notice to the defendant.

In other words, a secret hearing.

This reporter contacted court representative Mary Wisniewski, inquiring about the allegations that I am engaged in illegal conduct. Stating that,

“‘I certainly do not want to be violating any laws, Illinois or elsewhere,’ I asked for details as to what conduct I had engaged in that so alarmed Judge Mescall. ‘After debriefing those who were in the zoom hearing on Monday, I am being told that “Janet’s behavior teeters on the illegal,” according to Judge Mescall.

Would you please elucidate for me what behavior she is referring to? Asking questions, trying to get into zoom hearings, what?”

At the time of going to press, no response has been received to this query. A former Chicago attorney, Joanne Denison, was also challenged for “illegal misconduct” in the Sallas case, for helping Dean set up an email address. The challenge came from the attorney registration and disciplinary board, the IARDC, which alleged that Denison’s act of helpfulness constituted a violation of the laws constituting “unlawful practice of the law.”

The allegations against Denison were ultimately dropped.

So it appears that assisting someone in setting up an email account is still legal.

Asking questions … not so sure.

Top image credit: The Conversation

Janet Phelan has been on the trail of the biological weapons agenda since the new millennium. Her book on the pandemic, At the Breaking Point of History: How Decades of US Duplicity Enabled the Pandemic, has been published in 2021 by Trine Day and is available on Amazon and elsewhere. Her articles on this issue have appeared in Activist Post, New Eastern Outlook, Infowars and elsewhere. Educated at Grinnell College, UC Berkeley and the University of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism, Janet “jumped ship” and since 2004 has been writing exclusively for independent media. Her articles previously appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Oui Magazine, Orange Coast Magazine, the Long Beach Press Telegram, the Santa Monica Daily Press and other publications. She is the author of the groundbreaking expose, EXILE and two books of poetry. She resides abroad. You may follow Janet on Parler here @JanetPhelan. To support her work, please go to JanetPhelan.

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