Judges up for retention on the November ballot pose for a photo at the Greater Harvest Baptist Church in Washington Park in August. Credit: Tiesha Smith / Facebook On a Sunday in mid-August, more than ...

Each day of the 2017 trial brought troubling news about defense attorney Bernard Shelton Jr.’s health. Before jury selection began, Shelton told Cook County Circuit Judge Ursula Walowski he was ...

Curtis Lovelace was walking out of his law office in downtown Quincy, Illinois, when he spotted the stranger waiting by his car. “I recognized him to be a police officer,” Lovelace recalled about the ...

David and Robin Swaziek at their home on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Their daughter, Megan Wells, 31, was killed in June 2016 when local pharmacist Marc Mongan crashed his speedboat into the pontoon she ...

For decades, allegations of child abuse and employee misconduct have swirled around Chicago’s juvenile detention center. But on Thursday, a Cook County judge will begin proceedings in a rare trial of ...

Zella Croff, 73, lost her house in south suburban Markham to tax foreclosure in 2023. Credit: Taylor Glascock for the Investigative Project This is a joint project of Injustice Watch and the ...

Cook County Judge E. Kenneth Wright Jr., a powerful pillar of the judiciary for decades, is facing new scrutiny from the legal community following Injustice Watch reporting he took inappropriate ...

Two of the 77 Cook County judges running for retention in November claim homestead exemptions on Will County houses they have owned for years, Injustice Watch discovered as part of research for its ...

Every six years, Cook County circuit judges ask voters for another term on the bench in what’s known as a retention vote. (Illinois Appellate Court judges run for retention every 10 years.) This ...

We’re researching the Cook County judges running for another term in November for our judicial election guide. Have something to share? Let us know. Injustice Watch is the only newsroom in Cook County ...