People v. Doe

Defendant, Peter W. Ernst, an attorney, brings this appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of Du Page County finding him guilty of contempt of court and imposing a fine of *50. The court also ordered that the caption of its order should refer to defendant Ernst as “John Doe” so as to preserve the secrecy of special grand jury proceedings which were then pending. We have not been advised that it is still necessary to refer to defendant in that manner and have not done so.

This case arose out of a special grand jury investigation of the Du Page County Treasurer’s office. Although it is not…