Jeff Coen

Jeff Coen is a deputy metro editor overseeing the Tribune’s criminal justice report and GA desk. With more than 25 years of experience, he was previously an investigative and enterprise reporter for the paper, and covered both Chicago’s main criminal courthouse and U.S. District Court, including both trials of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Read an exclusive excerpt from ‘Murder in Canaryville: The True Story Behind a Cold Case and a Chicago Cover-Up’ and hear from the author at a free subscriber-only event

March 9, 2021 at 10:25 p.m.

There are many tragic murder cases that have become lodged in Chicago's collective memory. There are also many that have been forgetten, lost to history without a closer look into...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaks with a fellow traveler as he awaits his flight back to Chicago at Denver International Airport on Feb. 18, 2020, in Colorado after being released from prison earlier in the evening. "I can't wait to get home," Blagojevich said at the airport after President Donald Trump commuted the ex-Illinois governor's 14-year sentence.

Rod Blagojevich’s rise and fall and presidential commutation, a Chicago story

December 3, 2024 at 11:36 a.m.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was on the witness stand testifying in his own defense in federal court, chattering on in typical form and telling jurors about a 2002 fundraiser...

Patti Blagojevich returns home as she secures a second balloon reading "welcome back" to her porch in Chicago's Ravenswood Manor neighborhood on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019.

Sorting truth from myth in former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s conviction: 5 things to know

February 18, 2020 at 7:29 p.m.

After hinting at the possibility for years, President Donald Trump finally commuted the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday, ending his time in a federal prison in Colorado....

Michael LaPorta gets ready to head to speech therapy with the help of his mother, Patricia. LaPorta was seriously injured when he was shot in the head with the gun of his childhood friend, Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly.

Should the city of Chicago have to pay $44 million for a shooting involving an off-duty police officer? Federal judges set to rule

December 12, 2019 at 10:45 p.m.

Federal appeals judges signaled they could be about to overturn a historic jury verdict against the city of Chicago for a shooting involving an off-duty officer's gun, even though the...

Terrence Haynes spent nearly 20 years in prison before winning his release because of a problematic prosecution. Thursday he was formally declared innocent.

An Illinois man spent two decades in prison for a murder verdict that was overturned. He ‘never gave up hope’ — and now a judge has declared him innocent.

November 22, 2019 at 3:47 p.m.

An Illinois judge took the rare step Thursday of declaring a Kankakee man innocent of murder after the state's attorney agreed the man had spent nearly two decades in prison...

Terrence Haynes outside the Kankakee County Courthouse on May 6, 2019 after a pre-trial status hearing. Haynes was recently released from prison after being convicted of murder in 2000 and is awaiting a new trial.

After child witness recants two decades later, an Illinois man sues both the prosecutors and public defender involved in his murder trial

October 31, 2019 at 10:28 p.m.

A Kankakee man has filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against both the prosecutors and public defender involved in his murder trial after a child witness recanted decades-old testimony, and an...

Michael LaPorta and his mother, Patricia LaPorta, speak at a news conference at the office of their attorney Antonio Romanucci in Chicago in 2017.

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson: Officer should be fired for shooting a childhood friend and lying about it for years

October 19, 2019 at 2:14 a.m.

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson wants to fire an officer accused of shooting a childhood friend and then lying about it for nearly a decade, according to documents obtained by...

Shine Bougher 6, and sister Glori, 1, play at their family home in Will County. Their parents have filed a lawsuit after declining to give Glori a vitamin K shot after her birth.

Doctors took a newborn baby from her parents after they refused a vitamin K shot for her. Now the couple is suing the hospital and DCFS.

September 26, 2019 at 10:12 p.m.

In the moments after Angela Bougher gave birth last winter, she and her husband, a suburban Chicago pastor, were eager to hold their new baby girl. But as Bougher was...

Jordan Zulauf does the family laundry, Aug. 21, 2019, at their West Chicago home. In 2016, Jordan lost his arms, and his uncle died, after being electrocuted.

A suburban man lost his life — and his nephew lost his arms — from an improperly installed ComEd wire. State regulators can’t guarantee it won’t happen again.

September 18, 2019 at 6:35 p.m.

In the final moments of his life, Robert Zulauf administered CPR to his nephew and ordered bystanders to move away from the deadly power line that arced and bowed just...

An oversight agency has found that Chicago police Officer Patrick Kelly, left, was responsible for shooting his childhood friend Michael LaPorta in 2010 and should be fired.

Chicago police officer should be fired for shooting friend nearly a decade ago, lying about it, oversight agency says

September 9, 2019 at 10:20 p.m.

A Chicago police officer should be fired for shooting his close friend nearly a decade ago and then lying about it for years, a city oversight agency found. Reversing a...

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