Illinois

Record fine of up to $1.6M imposed on Southwest over planes sitting for hours on tarmac

In the stiffest penalty yet imposed over passenger-filled airplanes stranded for hours on the tarmac during stormy weather, the U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday announced a fine of up to $1.6 million against Southwest Airlines. However, as part of an agreed consent decree, the government agreed to credit against…

Jan 16, 2015 12:30 PM CST

Judge OKs use of funds from slain mom’s estate to pay lawyer in daughter’s Bali murder trial

Updated: A 19-year-old Chicago woman on trial in Bali for the slaying of her mother at a resort hotel has won an emergency motion filed Thursday in Illinois state court seeking to get money for her defense from her mom’s $1.56 million estate. In a Friday hearing, Cook County Chancery…

Jan 16, 2015 8:30 AM CST

3 charged, held on $1M bond, in attack on murder-hearing attendee as he exited courthouse

Three men on parole are facing new charges and being held in lieu of $1 million bond after allegedly beating another man outside a suburban Chicago courthouse on Monday. The injured man had just exited the Will County Courthouse after attending a pretrial hearing in the murder case against 16-year-old…

Jan 13, 2015 10:30 AM CST

Pretrial hearing in teen’s murder case sparks altercation for second time this month

For the second time this month, a pretrial hearing in a suburban Chicago murder case sparked chaos. Police said a 22-year-old attendee at a Monday hearing for defendant Christopher Stamps, 16, was jumped on the steps of the Will County Courthouse in Joliet and hospitalized, the Herald-News reports. Three men…

Jan 12, 2015 4:40 PM CST

Federal judge sanctions prosecutor’s office for bad faith in police misconduct case

A federal judge has sanctioned a former assistant state prosecutor and her office for bad faith in connection with a Chicago police misconduct case. At issue were files maintained by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office concerning misdemeanor arrests of a Chicago man that he and his lawyer sought to…

Jan 12, 2015 1:50 PM CST

Ex-employee gets 4 years in $163K law firm theft

A former office manager was sentenced to four years on Wednesday for stealing a little over $163,000 from a suburban Chicago law firm. Jordan E. Terry, 48, could see that prison term halved for good behavior, the Daily Herald reports. She stole the money during less than a year, in…

Jan 8, 2015 2:25 PM CST

Drone video posted on YouTube raises safety, privacy concerns for one Illinois town

The posting of a YouTube video recorded by a drone flying low over one Chicago-area town is generating concerns about public safety and privacy. Now city officials in Naperville, Illinois, are exploring what, if anything, can be done on a local level to regulate the operation of such devices, the…

Jan 8, 2015 1:04 PM CST

After retiring as federal judge, Illinois jurist relishes his return to the state trial court bench

After 10 years on the Illinois trial and appellate court bench and another 16 years serving as a federal district judge and chief district judge in Champaign, some might think Michael McCuskey would be ready to take it easy. But within months after retiring as a federal judge last year,…

Jan 6, 2015 12:20 PM CST

New crowdfunding site helps individuals raise money for legal fees

While reading the book Things a Little Bird Told Me last spring, Chicago attorney Michael Helfand was struck by one of author Christopher Isaac “Biz” Stone’s points. Stone, who co-founded Twitter, wrote that an entrepreneur solves problems—and Helfand considers himself an entrepreneur. Yet, as part of his Find Great Lawyers…

Dec 15, 2014 11:10 AM CST

Shoes said to contain killer’s blood weren’t for sale in US at time of murder, suit claims

Lawyers for an exonerated Illinois inmate allege police falsified evidence in an effort to link him to the August 1992 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. The evidence: blood on tennis shoes that weren’t for sale in the United States at the time of the slaying. Police had claimed…

Dec 11, 2014 11:52 AM CST

Jailhouse attack by handcuffed client sends public defender to hospital

A Chicago public defender was taken to a hospital Wednesday after being attacked from behind by a handcuffed client at the Cook County jail and rendered unconscious. Officials said attorney Richard Kruss, 49, was cut on the back of his neck or head but did not appear to have suffered…

Dec 11, 2014 9:30 AM CST

Federal judge says acquitted attorney can sue Above the Law for defamation, but not Gawker

A federal judge in Chicago has given a green light to a defamation and invasion of privacy suit by an Illinois attorney against the Above the Law. At issue is the blog’s coverage of a criminal trial at which Meanith Huon was acquitted of an alleged aggravated assault against a…

Dec 9, 2014 2:45 PM CST

Man faces felony theft charge for taking his own car from police impound lot

Ticketed by Chicago police on Thursday for driving on a revoked license, 23-year-old Eric Smith had his car towed from the scene. Unfortunately for Smith, the same two Chicago police officers spotted him driving the same 1996 Chevy Impala later the same day and pulled him over a second time,…

Dec 8, 2014 3:20 PM CST

Saggy-pants-jailing judge is reassigned; voters retained her despite ‘no’ recommendations

A Chicago judge accused of wielding her contempt powers to toss 30 people in jail won’t be hearing misdemeanor and ordinance cases in criminal court any more. The judge, Gloria Chevere, will be reassigned to “civil, nonjury/administrative matters,” according to a news release cited by the Chicago Tribune and Medill…

Dec 3, 2014 9:01 AM CST

Suspension recommended for lawyer who blogged about probate corruption and lawyer ‘feeding frenzy’

An Illinois patent lawyer accused of blogging with a reckless disregard for the truth is facing a proposed three-year suspension. The hearing board of the Illinois Registration and Disciplinary Commission recommended the suspension for lawyer JoAnne Marie Denison because of her blog comments about judges and lawyers. The Legal Profession…

Dec 3, 2014 5:45 AM CST