27-Year-Old Lawyer Who Admitted To Prostitution Sues Her Defense Attorney
Reema Bajaj, 27, says her former lawyer Timothy Johnson, former prosecutor Calvin Campbell, and a lawyer listed in her complaint only as "John Doe" gave confidential photos to the public along with unflattering news articles about her.
Now potential clients, jurors, and judges have all seen these embarrassing files, Bajaj says. She's suffered "extreme anger, grief, embarrassment, and humiliation," according to her lawsuit, which was posted online by Illinois newspaper the Daily Chronicle.
Johnson and Campbell, who now have their own practice together, did not immediately respond to a call requesting comment on the suit.
Bajaj pleaded guilty to prostitution over the summer. She was fined $2,500 and ordered to do 50 hours of community service and have a psych evaluation.
Police arrested Bajaj in June 2011, saying they discovered emails between her and a man who paid her for sex as part of an investigation into an unrelated case, the Daily Chronicle reported at the time. She was charged with three counts of prostitution, but two were dropped as part of a plea deal.
Police said there weren't any connections between her prostitution and her law firm clients. In her lawsuit filed Monday, Bajaj said she feared the photos and articles that were allegedly distributed after her arrest would hurt her law firm business.
She had her own private practice, according to various news reports. Her law firm website is no longer functional, though.
Before she was charged with prostitution, Bajaj volunteered her time in the Boone County Public Defender's Office, the Rockford Register reported after her arrest.