Former Lake County prosecutor convicted of giving alcohol to teen in Woodstock to lose license for 9 months

A former Lake County prosecutor, convicted in 2022 for buying liquor for a teenager he then spent time with in a Woodstock motel, will temporarily lose his law license.

Javaron D. Buckley, 37, of Mount Prospect, will lose his license for nine months starting Dec. 10, according to a news release from the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

According to the release, Buckley initially met the teen at the McHenry County courthouse when she was 17. In 2020, after she turned 18, he met her at the courthouse again and “took her to a hotel after purchasing condoms and a bottle of cognac,” according to the release.

“After the girl passed out in the hotel room, Mr. Buckley took her to her home and left,” the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission said in the release.

On Aug. 10, 2022, Buckley agreed to a plea deal, in which he pleaded guilty to giving or selling liquor to a minor and renting a hotel room with the knowledge that the room would be used for the consumption of alcoholic liquor by a person younger than 21 years, both Class A misdemeanors, according McHenry County court orders and the release.

He was sentenced to 30 days in the county jail and one year of conditional discharge, a judgement order shows. He also was ordered to pay a $500 fine and court fees of $1,264.20 and to have no contact with the woman or her family, sentencing records show.

Court records say on Jan. 17, 2020, Buckley bought 750 milliliters of Hennessy and Coca-Cola and gave it to the teen while at the Best Western Hotel in Woodstock. After responding to the motel in response to a call for suspicious activity, police learned that Buckley sent an Uber to pick up the teen from her house and bring her to the McHenry County courthouse. Buckley picked her up there and drove to a liquor store, according to a news release sent by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office at the time of his conviction.

Buckley bought liquor for the girl, then took her to the hotel, according to the release. About an hour later, the girl was captured on surveillance video unable to walk, being led out of the hotel lobby by Buckley.

After leaving the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, Buckley worked for the law offices of Donahue and Walsh in McHenry as a defense attorney, the law firm confirmed. He was not working with the firm at the time of the incident. He was practicing law out of a Waukegan office.