Homer Glen lawyer-turned-defendant unleashes tirade against judge at sentencing hearing

JOLIET – A Homer Glen lawyer convicted of trying to buy his wife’s murder from inside the Will County jail had harsh words Thursday for the judge who will sentence him.

Robert W. Gold-Smith, 54, repeated his assertions that a jail inmate fabricated a recording of Gold-Smith asking to have Victoria Smith killed and that Judge Daniel Rozak was biased against him. Gold-Smith, who represented himself in a bench trial earlier this year, faces 20 to 40 years in prison.

Gold-Smith and Victoria Smith were going through a contentious divorce when he allegedly punched her outside a courtroom in November 2010. That case still is pending, although Gold-Smith has admitted to the confrontation. Before court began Thursday, Gold-Smith spoke to Will County Assistant Public Defender Amy Christiansen, who is representing him on the domestic battery case.

“Twenty [years], 30, 40. It’s all the same to me,” Gold-Smith said. “It’s a life sentence. I get out of prison at 75, what good does that do me?”

During sentencing proceedings, Gold-Smith and prosecutor Adam Capelli noted he had no criminal history before the attack in the courthouse.

“I think things would’ve been different if I’d come in [to court] on the domestic ... done some time. It should’ve been a real simple thing,” Gold-Smith told the judge.

But after violating an order of protection, Gold-Smith was put in the county jail in March 2011 and offered Brian K. McDaniel $5,000 to kill Gold-Smith’s ex in October 2012, according to trial testimony.

Gold-Smith said Rozak wants “to personally oversee this conviction to gratify [his] ego.”

The former bankruptcy attorney also believes the judge felt obligated to protect the reputations of investigators and prosecutors he believes were duped by McDaniel.

“It’s not only politics but your Machiavellian prejudices that convicted me the day I set foot in your courtroom. You knew that recording was fabricated,” Gold-Smith told the judge.

After the bench trial, Rozak estimated he spent 30 hours listening to the tapes submitted as evidence.

“Why have you railroaded me?” Gold-Smith asked. “Your sadistic determination to send people to prison, regardless of their innocence?”

“You, sir, are an anachronism. A throwback to the tyrannical kings, despots and dictators,” he said. “The Spanish Inquisition would’ve been more appropriate for your [distribution] of justice, or should I say, injustice.”

Gold-Smith continued his statement to the court by accusing Rozak of anti-Semitism because of his last name, although Gold-Smith is not Jewish.

The defendant concluded addressing the court with another religious reference.

“Even if I were to have Jesus Christ as a witness, it wouldn’t have mattered,” Gold-Smith said.

The judge made no comments after Gold-Smith’s statement. Rozak typically takes time to review any sentencing matter and said he would do so until Oct. 19.