As earlier reported in the firm news section, John Meyer had predicted on December 5, 2007, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune, that there was no federal jurisdictional to justify the filing of federal charges against a Meyer & O’Connor, LLC client. In that case, federal authorities accused the firm’s client, an ex-city of Chicago health inspector, of accepting illegal payoffs. However, on February 21, 2008, after lengthy briefing on this hotly contested issue, United States District Court Judge George Lindberg agreed with the position advanced by Meyer & O’Connor, LLC and granted the motion to dismiss all charges against the firm’s client.
Update: Subsequently, the government obtained a new indictment. Again, John A. Meyer asserted that there was no federal jurisdiction over the charges in the new indictment. On March 5, 2009, after a lengthy contested hearing, the district court agreed with Mr. Meyer and dismissed the new indictment. Thereafter, the government obtained yet another indictment, which did withstand jurisdictional challenge.