Madeline Buckley

Madeline Buckley is a criminal justice reporter for the Chicago Tribune covering courts and the legal system. She covers courthouses across Cook County but is usually found at "26th and Cal."

The George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building, Feb. 1, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)

Transparency lacking in lucrative special prosecutor arrangements, attorneys say

March 16, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

The role of Cook County special prosecutor comes with immense power and potentially a lot of money. But these appointments, at times, have been criticized by attorneys representing the defendants.

A coalition of organizations, elected officials and individuals hold a press conference at Federal Plaza in Chicago, March 12, 2026, to call for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate possible crimes committed by federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Coalition wants special prosecutor named to review agents’ conduct during Operation Midway Blitz

March 12, 2026 at 3:48 p.m.

A group of community members, organizations and politicians are petitioning for a special prosecutor to investigate and potentially prosecute wrongdoing by federal agents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in...

Sarah Slackert, right, and Nikki Kidd, second from left, hug other women in their group outside the Maywood Courthouse after their charges were dismissed on March 4, 2026, following their arrest during a protest last year outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Cook County prosecutors dismiss 21 cases against ICE protesters, including suburban moms arrested in sit-in

March 4, 2026 at 2:22 p.m.

Cook County prosecutors dismissed 21 cases that were filed against protesters at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview.

Susan Battaglia, center, mother of Brittany Battaglia, leaves court following a lunch break in the trial of Genesis Silva, who is charged with concealing his girlfriend’s nearly-decapitated body in a duffel bag. Brittany Battaglia, 33, had been missing for days when her body was found with stab wounds in Silva’s Logan Square apartment in a duffel bag along with a machete and bags of cleaning equipment in June 2023. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Trial begins for man accused of killing woman, putting her in duffel bag in Logan Square

March 3, 2026 at 2:45 p.m.

A trial begins for a Logan Square man accused of killing his girlfriend and stuffing her body into a duffel bag.

Night falls on Loretto Hospital in the 5500 block of West Flournoy Street on Jan. 12, 2022, in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. A delivery driver was found lying on the ground outside Loretto on Feb. 23, 2026, after a doctor had ordered Uber Eats to the hospital, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

‘Just trying to provide for his family’: Judge orders woman detained in slaying of Uber Eats driver

February 25, 2026 at 3:40 p.m.

The judge ordered the 33-year-old be held in the slaying of an Uber Eats driver killed outside Loretto Hospital on Chicago’s West Side.

U.S. Border Patrol agents detain a driver on Cicero Avenue while conducting an immigration operation in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on Dec. 16, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Cook County top prosecutor circulates policy outlining process for charging federal immigration agents

February 19, 2026 at 4:55 p.m.

The Cook County state's attorney's office on Thursday released a protocol outlining the steps for filing charges against federal immigration agents, marking the first official policy from the office on...

Chicago police Detective Richard Zuley talks to people at Argyle Street and North Broadway on Jan. 25, 1990, in Chicago where he was working on a 1988 murder case. (George Thompson/Chicago Tribune)

Former CPD detective who spent time at Guantanamo denied coercing suspects: ‘Interrogation doesn’t work’

February 18, 2026 at 5:51 p.m.

Former Chicago police Detective Richard Zuley once spent time on a special assignment at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, but on the witness stand on Wednesday, the retired investigator took...

Hong Li Yang leaves the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago after Alvin Thomas was sentenced in a double homicide Feb. 11, 2026. Yang's husband at the time was one of the victims. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

‘Ripped away from us by a gunshot’: Man gets life sentence in Chinatown double homicide

February 11, 2026 at 4:56 p.m.

The sentencing hearing unfolded almost exactly six years after the slaying that rattled the tight-knit Chinatown community just a month before much of the world shut down at the beginning...

Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at the Choose Chicago gathering at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on Feb. 10, 2026. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Mayor Brandon Johnson says he won’t have say in charging ICE agents after prosecutor pushback

February 10, 2026 at 5:28 p.m.

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday said he will not refer alleged cases of misconduct by federal immigration agents to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Four-year-old Josiah, with his grandmother Mariely Rivera, and great-grandfather, Carlos Rivera, visit the grave of his mother, Stephanie Gutiérrez, who was killed in 2022, at Fairview Memorial Park in Northlake, Jan. 15, 2026. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

‘I feel like there’s no help’: Mother, family members question lack of charges in woman’s 2022 shooting death

February 10, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Stephanie Gutierrez was found fatally shot on a Chicago sidewalk in 2022, launching her family on a quest for justice in a case police consider cleared because detectives submitted it...

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