Attorney Cierra Norris, who has nearly 500,000 followers on TikTok, took to the social media app this week to address her jailing by a DuPage County judge for missing a court date.
TikTok screenshot
A TikTok-famous attorney thrown in the DuPage County jail last week for missing the start of a trial is addressing her time behind bars — over the social media site, of course.
Cierra Norris posted three videos this week to her TikTok account with more than 477,000 followers about her jailing on March 5. That’s when DuPage County Judge Margaret O’Connell found Norris in indirect criminal contempt of court and gave her a five-day jail sentence.
The videos feature recordings of portions of phone calls she purportedly had with an unidentified man discussing the situation. The videos are labeled “ATTORNEY JAIL CALLS LEAKED!” and feature a screenshot of our March 7 column about her incarceration.
“Nobody has ever slapped a criminal attorney off the floor before” in DuPage, a woman’s voice says during one of the recordings.
In the calls, she discusses why she was at a hearing in Cook County court rather than the start of the DuPage trial, and how she had expected she could get to DuPage, although maybe an hour late.
The woman also talks about how she thinks the DuPage County prosecutors who sought the contempt citation didn’t want her jailed. One told her to “take care, Cierra,” she said.
“It does not make me say, like, ‘I should probably listen to judges more,’” she adds.
She also has some choice words for a criminal justice system she labels as corrupt.
The TikTok homepage for attorney Cierra Norris.
TikTok screenshot
“The way people don’t stand up to the system the way I do is because they are the gatekeepers to prison. They are the gargoyles to this (expletive) system and if you push them too hard, they will throw you in jail and there isn’t a (expletive) emergency motion that’s going to get you out,” she said.
On the same day O’Connell sent Norris to jail, she revoked the courthouse telephone privileges and security badge for a lawyer working for Norris. The order does not spell out why.
Counselor’s conviction stands
A suburban therapist sent to prison for signing off on court-ordered counseling sessions that didn’t occur has lost his bid for a new trial.
Robert A. Moylan, 63, was found guilty in 2023 of seven counts of forgery for signing and delivering false documents stating that two clients at his Naperville-based practice had successfully completed counseling, court documents state.
Robert A. Moylan
According to trial testimony from one of his clients, Moylan reported that he had undergone 75 hours of counseling the man had been ordered to do after a DUI conviction. Instead, the man testified, they met for less than 26 hours, and spent much of their time talking about politics, not impaired driving and substance abuse.
The witness wore a wire during some of his sessions with Moylan. At one point in the recordings, the man paid Moylan $100 in cash, and the counselor told him he was taking it to a strip club.
Moylan later was sentenced to eight years in prison, though Illinois Department of Corrections records show he was released on parole last month.
Moylan raised a host of issues in an appeal decided this week by the Third District Appellate Court: that evidence against him was gathered unlawfully; that the trial judge allowed improper testimony; that investigators shouldn’t have been allowed to eavesdrop on counseling sessions; and that his eight-year sentence was excessive, among others.
The appellate court rejected them all, ruling that any evidence that may have been gathered improperly wasn’t presented at trial, and any errors were not significant enough to throw out the verdict.
In the meantime, Moylan is suing DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and one of his investigators in federal court, claiming they violated HIPAA and the Fourth Amendment when they obtained his patient records, notes and files during the criminal investigation against him.
The case, which had been on hold while awaiting this week’s appellate decision, is set to be in court March 18.
The tax scam cometh
Tax Day is coming fast. While that’s bad enough news if you owe Uncle Sam, you could make it worse by falling for a scam.
That’s the message behind a Better Business Bureau warning about tax scams, which cost taxpayers about $5.5 billion in 2023, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
“As soon as tax season opens, tax scammers come out of the woodwork,” BBB President and CEO Steve Bernas said.
Here’s what to look out for:
· Tax Identity Theft, in which scammers steal your tax information by offering a phony tax preparation service or tricking you into clicking on a link that downloads malware to your device.
· Phishing Scams send emails appearing to be from the IRS and include a link to a phony IRS website, where you’re directed to update your IRS e-file immediately, in a bid to obtain your personal information.
· IRS Impersonation Scams often start with a phone call in which a person claiming to be an IRS agent says you owe back taxes and threatens you with arrest or fines, if you don’t pay by prepaid debit card or wire transfer.
· “Ghost” tax preparers set up shop around tax time, usually in a vacant storefront, promising fast or large refunds. You might lose your refund and pay high fees, and if something goes wrong with your return, they are nowhere to be found.
Some advice on avoiding scams: Always check out a new tax preparer before you do business with them; when in doubt, contact the IRS directly to verify any contact; be wary of a tax preparer offering fast refunds or large returns; allow funds to be deposited into your personal accounts only; review your return before it’s submitted; and don’t give out your Social Security number unless you’re 100% sure you are dealing with someone you trust.
• Do you have a tip or a comment? Email us at copsandcrime@dailyherald.com.
