David Pasulka, Former Guardian Ad Litem, Arrested Again; Charged With Sexually Assaulting Two Women

By Christopher Hacker

CHICAGO (CBS) — David Pasulka, the powerful attorney accused of sexually assaulting female employees, as well as women whose children he represented in custody cases, was charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting two women.

According to court records, between September 2016 and May 2017, Pasulka, then 61 years old, repeatedly sexually assaulted a 43-year-old woman whose children he was appointed to represent as guardian ad litem — an attorney who represents the best interests of children in the midst of custody disputes.

Pasulka told the woman "how powerful he was and how he has great influence over the family court judges and her custody case," according to a bond proffer read in court Wednesday. He then told her to "be smart" before sexually assaulting her.

Only one of the assaults against that woman was within the statute of limitations, so Pasulka is only charged with assaulting her a single time.

The language she described closely mirrors the description of another alleged Pasulka victim. In March 2017, a woman said he offered to recommend a judge grant her full custody of her children in exchange for sex, according to a complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC). At one point, the woman said Pasulka told her she had to "do a little extra something," that she was a "smart girl" and if she really wanted custody of her children, she would have sex with him.

Similarly to the woman he was charged with assaulting Wednesday, Pasulka also represented that woman's children as guardian ad litem.

Pasulka is also charged with sexually assaulting a woman who worked as a paralegal at his law firm, David P. Pasulka and Associates. That woman told prosecutors Pasulka "continuously sexually abused and assaulted" her, and threatened to use his position of power to destroy her reputation in the legal community.

Pasulka was arrested on Tuesday near his office at 70 W. Madison St. in Chicago, and was released after posting a $100,000 bond. He faces a total of nine new counts: one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault, seven counts of criminal sexual assault and one count of criminal sexual abuse. The most serious of those charges, aggravated criminal sexual assault, can carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

These latest charges only add to Pasulka's deepening legal troubles. He was first accused by the ARDC in July 2020 of sexually assaulting a woman for whose children he was appointed guardian ad litem, and was also accused of sexually abusing three female employees of his law firm between 2012 and 2018, according to the ARDC complaint.

One day after CBS 2 first reported those allegations, Pasulka was charged with driving under the influence (DUI) in Glenview.

That wasn't Pasulka's first DUI. In 2017, he plead guilty to a similar case in which he "had consumed between one half and one pint of vodka" before getting on the Kennedy Expressway, hitting one car and later hitting a Starbucks in Niles, according to the ARDC.

In August, Pasulka was charged with three felony counts of sexual assault and abuse related to the charges in the ARDC complaint. Prosecutors later split that case into three separate cases with six total charges, ranging from sexual assault to intimidation, according to court records.

In December, more than four months after the ARDC first released its complaint, Pasulka's law license was suspended pending the conclusion of the criminal cases against him. An ARDC spokesperson told CBS 2 Wednesday their is on hold until those criminal cases are concluded.

The allegations against Pasulka sparked outrage within the domestic relations division of the Cook County Circuit Court, where divorce and child custody cases are heard.

Pasulka spent 20 years as the chair of a secretive committee that chooses which attorneys can serve as guardians ad litem. An attorney who worked in the domestic division wrote a letter calling for the resignations of Cook County's Chief Judge Timothy Evans, and the presiding judge of the domestic division, Judge Grace Dickler. That lawyer, Lawrence Thompson, whose ex-wife Pasulka represented in their divorce case in 2001, alleged the judges enabled Pasulka by allowing him unchecked power over the guardian ad litem system.

Dickler suspended Pasulka from the committee and prevented him from serving as guardian ad litem after the ARDC complaint was filed.

This story has been updated to include additional information about Lawrence Thompson's relationship with Pasulka and Judge Dickler's response to the alleagtions against him.

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