Crime and Courts

Joel Brodsky, ex-attorney of convicted murderer Drew Peterson, says he wants to talk about an error of "constitutional magnitude" in murder trial. A Will County judge on Wednesday refused to lift a gag order.

The pre-trial detention hearing for Alexa Balen, the Homer Glen woman accused of child endangerment after the death of her 2-year-old daughter, has been postponed to give Balen more time to find an attorney.

One of two people charged last year in connection with what Marengo police described as a drive-by shooting where two children were in the vehicle pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Two individuals, an Oswego teen and a 16-year-old male from Woodridge, have been accused of stealing several items at gunpoint at a Woodridge park after arranging to purchase the items from the victim over Snapchat, prosecutors said.

The jury got the full picture of how Mike McClain viewed his “assignments” from Michael Madigan, with whom he’d been friends since the 1970s

Darius Sullivan is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 21 for the December 2021 killing Bradley Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic and the attempted murder of now-retired Sgt. Tyler Bailey

Malta man was found guilty of strangling Melissa Lamesch in her Mt. Morris home one day before Thanksgiving 2020.

A motion was granted Monday to deny pre-trial release for a West Chicago teen accused in the shooting death of two individuals Nov. 9, prosecutors said.

A McHenry County judge issued an arrest warrant Monday for a man accused of posing as a black car driver, driving a woman from an airport to McHenry and then refusing to let her out of the car her until she gave him $1,400.

An Elgin man with five past offenses of drunken driving was accused of driving last week in McHenry with nearly four times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Joliet resident Antonio Ross has been charged with cruelty to animals after one dead dog and another in poor health were discovered in his back yard.

A Darien woman has been charged with committing a hate crime at a Panera Bread restaurant in Downers Grove by yelling at a man wearing a shirt that said “Palestine,” authorities said.

A man accused of sexually assaulting a child over multiple years in Marengo pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A suspect described as a "Grinch" by the Joliet Slammers stole Christmas reindeer decor valued at $45,000 from a baseball stadium in Joliet, police said. The Slammers are seeking help in finding the decor.

A federal lawsuit claims an asthmatic inmate at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill died from the extreme negligence of staff after he was placed in a “dangerously hot cell.”

In the wake of the killing of a Chicago police officer, Will County's state's attorney said lawmakers should close a “loophole” with the SAFE-T Act. Supporters of the law said his solution won't improve safety.

A sexual predator has been charged with going to Joliet West High School to pick up a 16-year-old girl and he’s accused of engaging in sexual acts with her, according to prosecutors.

A Spring Grove woman who admitted to leaving the scene of a crash where she killed a man was sentenced Thursday to two years probation. The man’s brother said the sentence “is an insult.”

Steven W. Coleman, 45, was sentenced Oct. 17 to three consecutive life sentences and another 105 years in prison for setting a fatal fire at the Western Apartments in Sterling. He was in court Thursday asking for that sentence to be reconsidered.

While attorneys for the former speaker used cross-examination of Marquez to try to distance Madigan from McClain, the jury heard more intercepted phone calls aimed at undercutting that narrative

Harrison Webb, charged with attempted murder, is accused of walking from his Rock Falls home to Sterling, going into the restaurant’s kitchen, and with less than two feet separating them, shooting a 17-year-old worker in the back of the neck.

An Island Lake man has been sentenced to six years in prison for supplying narcotics that killed a St. Charles man.

Jeffrey L. Knight, of Bradley, was also arrested for violating his prison parole

Jesse Alar, 37, pleaded guilty Nov. 7 to unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.

Tamica Neal, 45, of Crestwood has been found guilty of felony animal cruelty charges as well as aggravated assault in connection with a March 17 incident in Crest Hill in which a dog was stabbed to death.

A former Addison resident was sentenced Wednesday to 83 years in prison for a 2022 home invasion and sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl, prosecutors said.

A Will County judge blocked the jail release of a Homer Glen father and business owner charged with endangering his child who died from a suspected overdose death in a $1 million home that was completely trashed.

Two people were taken into custody in Grundy County after Illinois State Police found more than 1,800 grams of methamphetamine in their vehicle on Wednesday.

A woman admitted Thursday to stealing more than $6,000 from a Harvard packaging corporation and was sentenced to two years probation. She was also ordered to pay restitution.

Timothy Valdivia is also charged with violating an order of protection.

Attorneys for a Crestwood man convicted of killing a Lockport woman and their 14-month-old child in 2020 are claiming constitutional violations should grant him a new trial. A judge may rule on the motion on Dec. 19.

A Volo man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to delivering the drugs that resulted in the overdose of a man who died in a McHenry hospital.

The ComEd exec-turned-FBI mole spent a fifth day on the witness stand Wednesday in Michael Madigan’s bribery and racketeering trial

Edward Weiher, who has been charged with child endangerment in the death of his 2-year-old toddler, faced prior allegations of child neglect during his divorce from his ex-wife in 2023.

A Romeoville man faces weapon charges in connection with a July shooting in Joliet in which a house and car were shot at along Center Street.

A man was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to delivering a fatal dose of fentanyl to a man who died in his father’s Lake in the Hills home.

A Homer Glen father and mother are facing a felony charge of endangering the life and health of a 2-year-old child who died after becoming “unresponsive” in a filthy residence containing garbage and evidence of drug use, police said.

Two West Chicago teenagers face first-degree murders charges after fatally shooting two men during a drug deal, prosecutors said.

According to a Dixon Police Department news release, John D. Mowery, 41, was taken into custody Tuesday, Nov. 12.

A motion was granted Tuesday to deny pre-trial release for a Hanover Park man accused of crashing his car into a tree and injuring two children in his vehicle, both under 8-years-old, prosecutors said.

An arrest warrant has been issued for an Elgin man accused of stealing “numerous” laptops and docking stations valued at more than $10,000 from a McHenry business.

A judge is postponing a key ruling in President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money case as his lawyers argued for dismissing it so he can run the country

The cause and manner of the death of a 12-year-old girl last spring in Joliet has been deemed undetermined, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office report.

Lake in the Hills police are seeking a man accused of adding “isopropyl alcohol” into someone’s closed beverage bottle knowing they were drinking it.

A Carpentersville man initially accused by McHenry County Sheriff’s Office of possessing 40 pressed oxycontin pills and other narcotics pleaded guilty Friday to a fentanyl charge and was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

A Momence man is scheduled to appear in Will County Court on Friday regarding allegedly soliciting a child for sex

On Thursday, Kankakee police arrested Daniel Buhr, of Kankakee, for criminal damage to property for causing several hundred dollars in damages to a Kankakee business earlier in the week

A man convicted of punching a shopper at an Algonquin grocery store on Easter was sentenced to 180 days in the county jail, 30 months felony probation and ordered to get an anger management evaluation.

A 29-year-old homeless man is charged with armed violence after he allegedly stabbed a woman in the 100 block of South Batavia Avenue in Batavia on Nov. 8, according to a news release from the Batavia Police Department.

The Appellate Court of Illinois Third District affirmed the 18-year sentence imposed by a Kankakee County judge for convicted retired Catholic priest Richard Jacklin