A 92-year-old woman was acquitted of aggravated assault against an off-duty Chicago police officer, but still faces two counts of misdemeanor battery in an incident that left her 86-year-old husband dead. The woman and the police officer’s wife were also shot. The two couples were neighbors who had a longstanding…
Former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was released from prison earlier this month, after serving a three and one-half year sentence for lying to federal investigators regarding alleged torture committed by himself and Chicago police officers under his command. For more than 20 years, Burge and those under his command…
A law signed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn in August allows Illinois prison inmates who pled guilty to murder, rape or any other crime where DNA evidence is present, to petition the court to have that evidence tested in an attempt to have their conviction overturned. Illinois Post-Conviction DNA Testing…
A Chicago man was arrested last week in connection with the 2009 disappearance and murder of his girlfriend. The woman disappeared in April 2009 after last being seen with the defendant. Here whereabouts were unknown until recently, when a 911 call to the Dolton Police Department reported a body in…
An Aurora man convicted of murder in 2009 will have a second chance at post-conviction relief after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a judge’s dismissal order was filed one day too late. Illinois Post-Conviction Relief and People v. Perez Ivan Perez was convicted of the 2004 murder of Francisco…
A Cook County inmate was charged with solicitation of murder for hire after allegedly trying to hire a hitman to murder a witness in his upcoming trial on charges of criminal damage to property, telephone harassment, and criminal trespass. The hitman was, in fact, an undercover officer. Chicago Solicitation of…
An unidentified person allegedly stole jewelry from inside a home during a Skokie estate sale last week. The case is interesting because it raises a number of different issues that the prosecution will need to overcome if an arrest is made and charges filed, as well as many possible defense…
The recent indictment of Minnesota Viking’s running back Adrian Peterson on charges of child abuse, which stemmed from his admission that he disciplined his young son with a switch, is raising questions over just what constitutes corporal punishment, and when it crosses the line from discipline to child abuse. Chicago…
An Illinois Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of an Illinois man on charges of criminal sexual abuse, finding that evidence of other sex crimes allegedly perpetrated by the defendant was inadmissible. Without that evidence, there was an insufficient basis for upholding the conviction. People v. Puccini The defendant, Leonard…
A Chicago woman was arrested for her role in the alleged sexual assault of a Chicago man at gunpoint. The defendant and her friend picked up the man in their car as he walked down a Chicago street and proceeded to assault him. Male Rape Victims Sexual assault of a…