November 21, 2004: Headlines: COS - Somalia: Law: Child Welfare: Chicago Daily Herald: Patrick T. Murphy's early career included volunteering for the Peace Corps where he was stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia, and stints as a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office and as a lawyer for the National Legal Aid and Defender Foundation, and Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Somalia: Peace Corps Somalia : The Peace Corps in Somalia: November 21, 2004: Headlines: COS - Somalia: Law: Child Welfare: Chicago Daily Herald: Patrick T. Murphy's early career included volunteering for the Peace Corps where he was stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia, and stints as a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office and as a lawyer for the National Legal Aid and Defender Foundation, and Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-36-89.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.36.89) on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 7:12 pm: Edit Post

Patrick T. Murphy's early career included volunteering for the Peace Corps where he was stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia, and stints as a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office and as a lawyer for the National Legal Aid and Defender Foundation, and Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago

Patrick T. Murphy's early career included volunteering for the Peace Corps where he was stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia, and stints as a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office and as a lawyer for the National Legal Aid and Defender Foundation, and Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago

Patrick T. Murphy's early career included volunteering for the Peace Corps where he was stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia, and stints as a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office and as a lawyer for the National Legal Aid and Defender Foundation, and Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago

The house Murphy built
By Dave Orrick Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted 11/21/2004

For the past 26 years, there's been one person - and only one - at or near the center of nearly every legal controversy, political debate, tragedy, or investigative series in the realm of child welfare in Illinois: Cook County Public Guardian Patrick T. Murphy.

Now he's leaving.

Some will be glad to see him go. Others will mourn his departure. All agree he'll leave a void.

"Patrick actually managed to make a career out of punching government right in the face - which, in my experience, is occasionally the best way to get its attention," says Ronald Davidson, director of the mental health policy program at University of Illinois-Chicago's psychiatry department. The program has often teamed up with Murphy's office to uncover mistreatment of children at youth homes.

"While there were a few times recently when he picked the wrong fight for the wrong reason, more often than not, his instincts were right on target," Davidson said. "All things considered, I'm going to miss his curmudgeon act."

Next month, Murphy will be sworn in as a Cook County judge. Local news watchers accustomed to a steady bombardment of Murphy bites - his "curmudgeon act" - might be surprised to know this will be the first time in elected office for the 65-year-old father of two, who now lives in Riverside.

But from sparking a national debate on the rights of parents accused of neglect to shining a light on the problem of foster children bouncing from home to home, Murphy's legacy is far more than a collection of plain-spoken jabs at "stupid bureaucracy," a favorite phrase of his.

Street-fighter roots

Murphy grew up in the Irish-American neighborhood surrounding 69th Street and Ashland Avenue on Chicago's South Side. His father worked in the stockyards. His mother cared for their six sons and two daughters.

"Like any ethnic neighborhood," Murphy recalls, he had to be tough.

"It's not that I fought more than anyone else," he says. "It was all segregated, so the Irish fought the Italians, the Italians fought the Polish. None of it made any sense, but that's the way it was.

"When the kid in the schoolyard tried to bully me, I learned early: Punch him right in the nose."

Two of his brothers became priests, and two sisters nuns. Murphy went to seminary school but opted for a career as a social and legal activist. While putting himself through Northwestern University law school in the late 1950s, he worked construction in a mostly black work crew, a group of men he says opened his eyes to racial disparity.

His early career included volunteering for the Peace Corps where he was stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia, and stints as a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office and as a lawyer for the National Legal Aid and Defender Foundation, and Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago.

In 1971, his legal star took off when he successfully argued Stanley v. Illinois before the U.S. Supreme Court. The landmark case, one of the first sexual discrimination suits ever brought to the high court, greatly expanded fathers' rights.

In 1978, Gov. Jim Thompson appointed him guardian, at the time a part-time, footnote-of-a-position with two workers that assisted the mentally ill.

"In the interview, I asked him, 'What's the guardian's office?'æ" Murphy says. Then he chuckles mischievously. "The first thing I did was turn around and sue Jim Thompson."

Thus was born the Murphy Method.

The Murphy Method

"I built this office," Murphy says unabashedly. And no one disagrees.

His strategy was a three-pronged pitchfork that he thrust into the torso of the scarecrow of shoddy services and political hackism that typified public care for the least cared-for and most vulnerable: mentally ill senior citizens, and abused and neglected children.

Prong 1: Appeal court rulings and get judges where it hurts: Embarrass them among their peers for bad rulings - what Murphy calls "stupid decisions."

Prong 2: File lawsuits, big class-actions on behalf of, say, every ward at a mental hospital that accuses the state of violating his or her rights. Such suits, unprecedented at the time, could be resolved only by massive reforms.

Prong 3: Go to the media and get public outcry. "I guess I speak in sound bites," Murphy confesses. "I don't mean to. I just guess it's something I learned in the courtroom, trying to speak clearly."

It teed off plenty in the establishment, but the Murphy Method worked. He effectively shut down mental hospitals and outed unsavory characters who preyed upon older people with no family but large estates.

In 1981, the office expanded and Murphy became answerable to the head Cook County judge. In 1987, Chief Judge Harry Comerford bought into a Murphy ultimatum and granted him control over the office of "guardian ad litem," which is tasked with representing the "interests of the child" in custody battles, cases of alleged abuse, and neglect and treatment of state wards.

"When you represent children, that gives you tremendous power," Murphy says.

Soon, the once-underdog and underpaid lawyer had an army of attorneys, a judge's salary (about $150,000 now), and was at the center of national discussions - and being accused of being the bully.

Today, the $17-million-a-year office has a staff of 300, including 150 lawyers - the largest office of its kind in America, and it reaches far beyond the borders of Cook County.

"He turned it into a real powerhouse," says Ben Wolf, associate legal director for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "People fear him."

Going too far?

"He has an unbelievable passion for protecting the vulnerable," Wolf says. "He's almost like a young person in his zeal for the underprivileged."

But that only goes so far.

For example, in 1993, when a troubled mother hanged her 3-year-old son, Joseph Wallace, Murphy seized the moment and crusaded for more state intervention in cases of suspected abuse.

He later admitted that he misstated his own personal involvement in the case, but he became a key source for the media, and public outcry soon led to reforms. Critics say the reforms were harmful.

"Murphy's good intentions are no comfort to the thousands of children whose families were needlessly torn away from them because of Murphy's support for a take-the-child-and-run approach to child welfare," says Richard Wexler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for Child Protection Reform and, like Murphy, an outspoken critic of many child welfare policies.

"Those good intentions are no comfort to children abused at Maryville (Academy) whose 'guardian' forgot whom he was supposed to guard. The tears shed by children harmed by policies supported by Patrick Murphy would fill the Chicago River three times over."

Wolf agrees that Murphy's initial defense of Maryville's popular leader, the Rev. John Smyth, hindered efforts to address dangers to youths living at the agency's Des Plaines campus - even though many of the problems there were brought to light by Murphy's staff.

And Wolf said Murphy's 1991 opposition to a wide-ranging federal court settlement between the ACLU and the Department of Children and Family Services over how wards are treated was "unhelpful."

Despite all the enemies he's made, no one's questioned his good intentions, and while he's been charged with largesse of the ego, he's never been accused of corruption.

And Wolf and others agree that without Murphy, many reforms would have never even been discussed.

"He really put some issues on the agenda.," says Mark Testa, director of UIC's Children and Family Research Center. Testa credits Murphy's lawsuit last year on behalf of 205 foster children with "putting the issue of multiple moves on the map," referring to the national problem of children bouncing from foster home to foster home.

"Sometimes he went over the top, but at least, if he burned downed buildings, he built them back up," Testa said.

Former DCFS Director Jess McDonald offers a balanced view of Murphy.

"He was an interesting partner in helping change the system," McDonald says. "Patrick was one of those pressures that just had to be in place for everything else to happen. He was a good force, even though some might not like that. ... Whether I agreed with Patrick or not, I respected him."

When Murphy ran for judge, all but one area bar association gave him favorable marks.

The Chicago Council of Lawyers did not. In an exceptionally lengthy assessment, the organization wrote noted: "A substantial number of lawyers have also criticized Mr. Murphy's conduct toward opposing parties and counsel as often personal or as otherwise overzealous, including, on occasion, inappropriately leaking information to the press in an effort to gain a tactical advantage."

On Wednesday, Robert Harris, Murphy's top deputy, was tapped to replace him. Harris is promising to be as strong an advocate as Murphy, albeit a quieter one.

But Murphy, who says he doesn't expect to preside over child custody or domestic relations cases for some time, hinted that the public may not have heard the last of him.

"I'm still around," he said, noting his good health from playing handball three times a week. "I plan on working until I'm 80. I didn't want to stay in this job that long. But that doesn't mean if I see stupid things going on - anywhere - I'm not going to speak up."

Legacy: Started part-time, but now has staff of 300





When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Birth of the Peace Corps The Birth of the Peace Corps
UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn.
Vote "Yes" on NPCA's bylaw changes Vote "Yes" on NPCA's bylaw changes
Take our new poll. NPCA members begin voting this week on bylaw changes to streamline NPCA's Board of Directors. NPCA Chair Ken Hill, the President's Forum and other RPCVs endorse the changes. Mail in your ballot or vote online (after Dec 1), then see on how RPCVs are voting.
Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying
Congressman Norm Dicks has asked the U.S. attorney in Seattle to consider pursuing charges against Dennis Priven, the man accused of killing Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner on the South Pacific island of Tonga 28 years ago. Background on this story here and here.
Your vote makes a difference Your vote makes a difference
Make a difference on November 2 - Vote. Then take our RPCV exit poll. See how RPCV's are voting and take a look at the RPCV voter demographic. Finally leave a message on why you voted for John Kerry or for George Bush. Previous poll results here.
Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers
The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference.

RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls.

Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate.

Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.
Director Gaddi Vasquez:  The PCOL Interview Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview
PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before.

Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Read the stories and leave your comments.






Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Chicago Daily Herald

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Somalia; Law; Child Welfare

PCOL14936
15

.


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: