Steve Schmadeke

High-ranking Cook County prosecutor resigns after inquiry into case referrals to former employer

May 23, 2019 at 5:17 a.m.

A top member of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office resigned Friday after an internal review found he had referred business to his old law firm, allowing it to charge...

Teacher Kathryn Wanicek holds a photo and handwritten note from her former student Gizzell Ford, who was murdered by her grandmother in July 2013.

Torture death of 8-year-old Gizzell Ford leads to $48M jury award over doctor missteps

May 23, 2019 at 5:16 a.m.

For five days, jurors heard how the state’s child protection system had repeatedly failed Gizzell Ford, an 8-year-old girl found strangled, starved and brutally beaten inside her grandmother’s West Side...

Jurors in doctor’s civil trial overwhelmed by photos, details of 8-year-old’s torture slaying

May 23, 2019 at 5:15 a.m.

An emotionally charged civil trial related to the torture slaying of 8-year-old Gizzell Ford was paused soon after it began Thursday when a juror hearing of the horrific injuries the...

Civil trial to begin for doctor accused of missing ‘telltale sign of abuse’ before Gizzell Ford’s death

December 15, 2018 at 9:23 a.m.

Four years after 8-year-old Gizzell Ford was found strangled and badly bruised inside a filthy West Side apartment, a respected child-abuse pediatrician is expected to take the witness stand as...

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has frozen 200-plus misconduct cases pending before his merit board.

Sheriff Tom Dart’s personnel board halts firings, suspensions amid legal questions

May 23, 2019 at 5:13 a.m.

The Cook County sheriff’s personnel board has halted all firings and suspensions, months after an appellate court ruling threw into question the legality of hundreds of crucial staffing decisions. Sheriff...

Ari Emanuel at his brother Rahm's swearing-in ceremony in Millennium Park in 2011.

Chicago link to Johnny Depp’s Hollywood lawsuit: A hedge fund, mayor’s brother

March 31, 2019 at 7:34 a.m.

Embattled actor Johnny Depp, engrossed in a multimillion-dollar legal battle with his former business managers, is seeking records from a Chicago-area hedge fund, including any communications relating to Mayor Rahm...

Lisa Alcorn talks about her son Tyler Lumar at the office of her attorney Eileen O'Connor in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2017.

How a minor traffic offense in western Illinois ended in catastrophic brain damage in a Chicago jail

May 23, 2019 at 5:01 a.m.

Outside a West Side medical clinic late last summer, a fed-up Tyler Lumar told Chicago police he'd had enough. Officers were called to the East Garfield Park clinic after Lumar,...

Timothy C. Evans, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County comes to WGN studios for an interview on John Kass's podcast "The Chicago Way" seen here at Tribune Tower in Chicago on 2017.

Budget ax falling — but not on Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans’ daughters

May 24, 2019 at 1:15 a.m.

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans says layoffs, imposed last week by the County Board, could compromise his staff’s ability to do legally required work. Saying his office is one...

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, shown Aug. 24, 2017, who said she has pushed for electronic filing since taking office more than 16 years ago, acknowledged there may be some hiccups but said her office is prepared.

Digital future awaits Cook County courts, but first there’s that carbon paper

May 23, 2019 at 5:10 a.m.

More than 15 years after the federal court system went paperless, Cook County Circuit Court clerks still spend their days ferrying stacks of Manila case folders and entering handwritten judges’...

Body of evidence? Slaying suspect seeks judge’s OK to have bullet surgically removed

May 23, 2019 at 5:12 a.m.

Slaying suspect Jesse Pinkerton’s attempt to uncover evidence that might help him beat first-degree murder charges isn’t all that unusual. But his method certainly is. Pinkerton, who is charged in...

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