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A former McHenry County prosecutor fired in 2019 for embellishing information about his work history has now had his law license suspended stemming from the same “false statements,” according to the Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission.
Scott Ian Jacobson was hired to work in the county’s appellate office in 2018. When he applied for a position as a first chair assistant state’s attorney, he was evasive when answering questions about his work history, which raised suspicions, according to the ARDC review board’s report and recommendations on the case.
It’s a chapter in my life that I regret happened, and I am deeply sorry.”
— Scott Ian Jacobson
The interview process involved five attorneys from the office, including McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally.
Those attorneys testified at the disciplinary hearings, and each said that Jacobson noted “he had extensive trial experience,” according to the document.
Reached this week, Jacobson released a statement saying, “It’s a chapter in my life that I regret happened, and I am deeply sorry.”
Before working in McHenry County, Jacobson, who was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 2010, worked as a law clerk for two years as an intern at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in the appeals and criminal division. In Cook County, he “obtained his temporary law license ... which allowed him to participate in trials as long as he was supervised by a licensed attorney,” according to the ARDC document.
From 2010 to 2015, after graduating from law school, he worked in the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office, where he handled appeals. He then worked as a law clerk for Justice Susan Hutchinson in the Illinois Appellate Court 2nd District for three years before working for McHenry County, according to the document.
His fabrications during interviews for the first chair position included that he had “tried dozens of cases,” according to the ARDC’s findings.
He “falsely represented that he had prosecuted significant cases, including narcotics cases, termination of parental rights cases and a DUI case that involved five deaths,” according to the ARDC report.
He also said he was assigned as a special prosecutor for the drug unit in the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office, according to the document.
The attorneys said Jacobson also gave misstatements when he named specific lawyers with whom he had tried cases in the appellate prosecutor’s office and Winnebago County. When one of the interviewing attorneys dug deeper, he learned that “none of those statements were true,” according to the ARDC findings.
Jacobson then met with the other attorneys, who asked him about statements they believed were untrue, and he continued to be evasive, the ARDC found.
“[The] respondent was very evasive, and they were unable to get a straight answer from him,” according to the document.
However, one of the attorneys said “at some point toward the end, he finally admitted to embellishing some of his work history,” according to the document.
Jacobson later apologized. However, he later was reinterviewed and again “stood by the things he had said” during the earlier interview, “including that he had been an ASA in Cook County and had tried 20 trials in a felony courtroom as a first chair trial attorney,” according to the document.
In that role of first chair in McHenry County, Jacobson would have been “prosecuting criminal cases in a felony courtroom,” according to the document.
One of the attorneys called the things Jacobson said “ludicrous.” When Jacobson went to resign from the office, he told Kenneally that he “had consumed alcohol and prescription medicine the night before the [first] interview, and he did not really remember what happened during the interview,” according to the ARDC’s report. Kenneally did not immediately accept his resignation, but after learning that he continued to lie, he was terminated, according to the document.
Jacobson also is accused of making fabricated statements when he applied to be an Illinois associate judge in 2016. He was asked to list the last two jury cases he had tried through to verdict in the last five years. One of the cases he listed was in Winnebago County.
“He certified that all of his statements were true. However, [the] respondent did not try the ... case, and he did not appear in front of the jury in that case,” according to the ARDC document.
“In both instances, he engaged in dishonesty while applying for a significant and influential position that required the highest degree of honesty and integrity,” according to the ARDC report.
A statement from the hearing board said, “It is troubling that he [made false statements] when seeking positions for which public trust and confidence are especially important.”
After leaving the state’s attorney’s office, Jacobson said he entered a detox program, went to counseling and therapy, and attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. During the hearings, he told the board “he values his law license,” according to the document.
Jacobson’s attorney declined to comment.
But Hutchinson, the appellate court justice for whom Jacobson worked, released a written comment in response to a Northwest Herald inquiry: “The allegations against Scott Jacobson arose at a time when Scott was not employed by the state in my chambers. It took about five years for the matter to be completed. COVID and other administrative matters regrettably intervened. Mr. Jacobson has been a valued employee in my chambers during this five-year period, and it will be a shame if he is unable to remain as a member of my staff.”