Perv attorney looking to have taxpayers foot bill on knee

Tom Lakin from a few years back; he doesn't exactly look that fit and trim now

MADISON CO.—One of the attorneys-gone-bad that we were featuring about four or five years ago is whining to the authorities that he needs his knee replaced before he gets out of the slam.

Tom Lakin, 71, who had a huge law practice in the “judicial hellhole” of southern Illinois (known individually as Madison/St. Clair/Bond counties over on the Metro-East side of the state), was a high-roller in the area for a long, long time. He handled high-profile class action litigation and was in every aspect of his life a legal bigwig and respected and well-liked community icon.

Except that he liked to have sex with teenage kids.

When tales began to emerge about this guy’s proclivities, he of course bulled up and lawyered-up, claiming that his ‘enemies’ were telling tales and even paying parents to encourage their teen-aged girls AND boys to lie about him.

However, the investigation indicated that this simply wasn’t the case; there had been parties at Lakin’s residence in East Alton that involved teens (generally in the age range of 15-18, but according to some reports there were some as young as 13) in group sessions, wherein Lakin watched and masturbated, and in many instances, participated. To exacerbate the repulsive situation, Lakin gave the children substances like cocaine to add to the fun.

What got him was that when the investigation wrapped up and a warrant was issued for his arrest, he had taken a 15-year-old boy to California with him, and they were staying at a place Lakin owned out there….thus bringing in the feds to the action. He was charged with a host of counts revolving around Maintaining Drug-Involved Premises, Distributing Cocaine, Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance and Interstate Transportation of Minor with Intent to Engage in illicit Sex.

Lakin was convicted on three of the multitude of drug-related federal charges in 2007 and has been imprisoned in different federal facilities while awaiting the resolution of the state sex charges in Madison County, which was accomplished yesterday. His sentence there is set to run concurrently with the remainder of the fed sentence, which is over in a year (November 2012).

But in the meantime, Lakin is claiming that he really, really needs surgery on his knee.

Turns out he injured himself on the exercise equipment in the nice federal pen where he’s being house (currently, it’s Fort Worth, although it’s not clear if that’s where the injury occurred) and his attorneys are worried that the taxpayer is going to have to foot the bill for the knee.

None of that was addressed in the Madison County hearing, however; it was just kind of dropped in there, just so everyone was made aware of it in case this comes to pass and folks start griping about it (which we as taxpayers have the right to do).

Two things came out of the hearing yesterday: the finalization of the case—the sentencing—means that the male victim can now pursue civil charges against the formerly-mega-wealthy Lakin; and that Lakin is now a registered sex offender in the state of Illinois and no matter where he goes once he’s out of federal custody in 2012, he won’t be allowed around kids….quite the fall for someone of such prominence.

Lakin wasn’t the only Mad/StC/Bond-area attorney we featured five years ago; attorney Gary Peel was also the subject of many Disclosure articles back then, as he was charged and convicted of child porn for shooting photos of his then-16-year-old sister-in-law 30 years prior, yet other punks in our area of the state (specifically, Wayne County, and specifically, Aaron Barnard) were allowed to get away with filming underage girls changing into their swimsuits at his family’s pool house…then going on his class trip with the same girls,ostensibly bringing along his camera. Of course, those familiar with Wayne County’s version of “justice” know that this ridiculousness is par for the course there.

Lakin has been anything but remorseful about his antics lo those many years back, which may account for his federal prison sentence in lieu of no prior convictions.

But yesterday his attorney, Ben Allen, was just too much, as was reported in the Belleville paper:

Allen said the plea deal on the sex charge was in place in 2007 but logistics and other factors kept them from closing the deal until Tuesday.

He said Lakin is participating in a drug rehab program in prison.

“This has been a tough case for Tom. Look where he was, and look where he is,” Allen said. “This had to get over … this is all tied together by drugs and bad judgment.”

Um. Call the whaaaaaaambulance. Ol Tom needs to stay off the workout equipment if he can’t use it any better than to be dinging up his knee so that the rest of us have to pay for the damage. Because it looks like several people have already paid too high a price.

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Posted by Jack Howser on Oct 26 2011. Filed under Breaking, Illinois. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry