Former Will County Board Member's Suit Says Lawyer Sent 'Intimate' Pics to Judge & Prosecutor

A former Will County board member has ramped up her effort to eradicate "intimate" photos she says have been passed around by former boyfriends to others—including a judge.

Kathleen Konicki, who represented Homer Glen on the county board, sued New Lenox resident John Bassett and Joliet attorney Timothy Rathbun. Konicki and her attorney, John Ridge, had previously identified Rathbun and Bassett as her past love interests.

Konicki petitioned for a protective order against Bassett last year. In the order, she accused Bassett of taking "carefully staged pictures designed to embarass" her, and then passing them off to a pal who distributed them "to a number of other people."

During a court hearing related to the protective order, Ridge identified the second man as former Konicki flame Rathbun. Konicki subpoenaed Will County Judge Gerald Kinney and State's Attorney James Glasgow to testify in that matter but both are fighting against having to sit for a deposition.

"If this was a criminal case, the special witness doctrine would apply," Assistant State's Attorney Phil Mock argued at a previous hearing. "You can't just subpoena judges for a fishing expedition. The same thing goes for state's attorneys. The same thing goes for reporters."

In her lawsuit, Konicki claims Rathbun sent the "embarrassing and intimate" photographs of her to Kinney and Glasgow. The suit said this happened in December 2012 and that Konicki found out about it the following month.

Since then, the lawsuit said, Konicki has suffered "severe emotional distress, including loss of ability to sleep, loss of ability to concentrate, loss of energy, digestive upset, and crying spells."

Konicki, who is also an attorney, is representing herself in the lawsuit. In the suit, she said Bassett and Rathbun "acted with spite, hatred, ill will, and intent to injure" her.

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