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Chicago Lawyer Disciplined For Representing Prostitute He Was Busted With

By NewsCore - A Chicago attorney who wound up in court last year for hiring a prostitute found himself before a disciplinary board to explain why he did not tell a judge that he had agreed to represent the prostitute in court for free, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Steven Koukios, 52, was arrested in April of 2009 when he arrived at the Chicago apartment of Shannon Rosillo, 33. She had just been taken into custody for soliciting an undercover cop and Koukios was charged with visiting a "house of ill fame."

As they sat handcuffed in the back of a Chicago police vehicle, Koukios agreed to take Rosillo's case without pay. In court in May 2009, Judge Kenneth Fletcher accepted Rosillo's plea but was surprised when Koukios appeared in his own related case later the same day.

The judge brought Koukios and Rosillo into chambers to explain the potential conflict of interest. Rosillo decided to stick with her plea deal. The charge against Koukios was later dropped.

Koukios admitted to the attorney disciplinary panel Thursday that he did not discuss the potential conflict of interest in representing Rosillo with her, the state's attorney or the judge in the case before negotiating a plea deal.

Koukios' lawyer, Mitchell Ex, said his client only wanted to help Rosillo because she was a single mother who was not from the Chicago area. "His only motivation was to help this young lady who was distraught," Ex said. "He did it without charge to her -- financial charge." Koukios agreed to attend a professional responsibility class.