The 5th Appellate Court in Mount Vernon handed down a loss yesterday to the Illinois Department of Human Services, and reaffirmed in its entirety an earlier ruling in Clinton County court appointing attorney Stewart Freeman as guardian for all state wards of the Warren G. Murray Developmental Center in Centralia. Justice Judy Cates gave the opinion that the Clinton County court’s order prohibiting transfer of the wards under the guardianship of the Office of State Guardian from Murray Center without the consent of Stewart Freeman until further order of the court, is proper and within the court’s authority. Cates says the functions of a guardian ad litem, such as Freeman, is to act as the eyes and ears of the court and to make recommendations as to what is in the best interests of and what will protect the immediate welfare of the wards. Freeman has recommended transferred wards be returned to Murray. The State had appealed the Clinton County case that had appointed Freeman to represent 24 Murray residents who are wards of the state, 10 of whom still live at the Centralia facility. The circuit court had also ordered the State to not transfer any other state wards from the Murray Center without Freeman’s consent. A similar order was issued from the federal court regarding Murray residents who have private guardians. The State claimed in their appeal that the people who brought the Clinton County case did not have standing as interested parties as they are not related to the residents, nor do they know them. However, Cates noted in the Appellate Court ruling that because of their disabilities, the Murray residents would be unable to bring their case before the courts and so it was indeed proper for people off the street to bring the case to the court. She also dismissed the state’s claim that Clinton County has no jurisdiction. She first noted that 8 of the 24 residents’ cases were already in Clinton County court and that the others were spread throughout 12 different counties. She said that to expect each of these OSG wards to go back to their original county and file a petition would simply be wrong.