News Archive

Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans and Superintendent Leonard Dixon today opened a barber school at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center to help residents obtain a state barber license.

The class will help interested residents seek educational and employment opportunities upon their release into the community. If a resident does not complete the 1,500 hours of class time required to receive an Illinois barber license during JTDC residency, completed hours can be applied to a barber school in the community.

Pursuant to action taken Tuesday by the Executive Committee of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Circuit Judge Jessica A. O’Brien has been reassigned to administrative duties in the office of the Presiding Judge of the First Municipal District, Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr.

The assignment is effective until further notice.

The Executive Committee’s decision to reassign Judge O’Brien followed a meeting of the Circuit Court of Cook County Executive Committee convened Tuesday by Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans.

Please see the below statement issued this morning by Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans:

“I join all of the judges today in the Circuit Court of Cook County in expressing our sadness regarding the tragic passing of our colleague and friend, Associate Judge Raymond Myles. I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues in the Criminal Division.”

On-call attorneys now available for consultations in police stations

Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans today appointed Circuit Judge Tommy Brewer as Acting Presiding Judge of the court’s Sixth Municipal District effective immediately. He succeeds former Presiding Judge Marjorie C. Laws who retired on Friday, January 20, 2017.

On a national level, there is a public conversation about the use of monetary bond in pretrial detention of defendants.

Locally, a Cook County Board resolution seeks to hold a hearing to explore the issue of alternatives to monetary bond.

I’m pleased that Cook County is joining the national conversation at this time. The Circuit Court of Cook County is currently in a transition period regarding pretrial detention in felony cases in Central Bond Court at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The Circuit Court of Cook County will start holding weekend and holiday hearings for detained juveniles, Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced today.

The Circuit Court previously followed the practice – in compliance with state law that other counties in the state have also followed – of holding the hearings only on weekdays. The new weekend and holiday hearings will begin on November 5, 2016 and be held at 11 a.m. at the Juvenile Center, 1100 S. Hamilton Ave.

As of Friday, August 26, 2016, Rhonda Crawford is no longer employed as a law clerk/staff attorney assigned to the Circuit Court of Cook County’s Markham courthouse.

On August 17, 2016, Crawford was suspended without pay by Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans following allegations that she adjudicated two cases from the bench in a Markham courtroom while wearing a judicial robe. On August 26, 2016, Chief Judge Evans terminated her employment.

Pursuant to action taken today by the Executive Committee of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Judge Valarie E. Turner has been temporarily reassigned to duties other than judicial duties in the office of the Presiding Judge of the First Municipal District, Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. The assignment is effective until further notice.

People reporting for jury service at the Rolling Meadows courthouse in the Circuit Court of Cook County will now have Wi-Fi access while they wait to find out if they will be considered to serve as jurors for a trial, Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced today.

Prospective jurors already have Wi-Fi access in the Richard J. Daley Center, the Leighton Criminal Court Building and the courthouse in Markham.

The Circuit Court is working with the Cook County Bureau of Technology to bring Wi-Fi to the jury assembly rooms at the Skokie, Maywood and Bridgeview courthouses.