Though I have absolutely no federal powers, I'm still thinking about disqualifying a federal judge from the Mickey Segal trial that begins on Monday. It should have been the sexiest racketeering and tax fraud case in years.
But U. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo has taken the sex out of it. Castillo has demonstrated such woeful ignorance of Chicago's famous "Viagra Triangle," that I'm surprised Mayor Richard Daley appointed Castillo to his mayoral gaming commission in the hopes of bringing casinos to Chicago. What's also odd, is that the judge thinks jurors should be able to tell a Rush Street hooker simply by looking at one.
So how can Castillo possibly preside over the racketeering and tax fraud case of Michael Segal, the politically connected boss of Near North Insurance Brokerage? Every politician, fixer and bagman in Illinois will study this case, because what's at stake is not merely Segal's innocence or guilt, but a few of their own happy endings too.
He played and closed his political and business deals on the Near North Side on Rush Street, in what is called "The Viagra Triangle" because old guys with money hang out there. The old guys often fool themselves into thinking that sexy young women are drawn to them by their powerfully magnetic old dude personalities.
Yet in pretrial hearings last week, Judge Castillo revealed a Viagra Triangle deficit so profound that it sounded as if he'd spent the last 50 years in chambers, alone, reading Field and Stream and the collected correspondence of the Bronte sisters. He thinks Rush Street hookers dress like hookers. He'll let the hookers take the witness stand, but he won't let them mention their professional qualifications.
