In the News
Blagojevich begins bleak countdown to prison
AP - 12/08/2011 - Rod Blagojevich starts his Thursday facing a bleak countdown — 71 days before the twice-elected Illinois governor must say goodbye to his family and begin serving a 14-year sentence for corruption. (MORE...)
Blagojevich source: Emanuel, Jackson to testify
By MICHAEL TARM (5/24/2011) CHICAGO (AP) - A source familiar with plans for Rod Blagojevich's defense says Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. will be called to testify Wednesday when attorneys begin mounting a defense in the former governor's retrial on corruption charges. (MORE...)
Blagojevich Defense Team Scaled Down (AP quotes Pissetzky)
By MICHAEL TARM (AP) - A defense team of more than a dozen attorneys and legal aides, who huddled around former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich talking strategy or even comforting their client during his first corruption trial, won't be there for his second. The official number of attorneys for the retrial is - two. (MORE...)
Would you let your kids drink in your home?
BY FRANK MAIN AND DAN ROZEK (December 31, 2006) Staff Reporters - When Mark and Denise Richmond moved into their sprawling Deerfield home, the Hutsell family welcomed them with open arms. "My neighbors are very nice and polite and religious people," Mark Richmond said. Then on Oct. 13, a drunken 18-year-old slammed his car into a tree at the entrance to the cul-de-sac where the Richmonds and Hutsells live in the affluent north suburb. (MORE...)
Imprisoned Ex- IL Gov. Ryan Visited Ill Wife
By MICHAEL TARM (AP - 1/10/2011) CHICAGO (AP) - Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan spent two hours this week with his terminally ill wife of 55 years, after quietly being let out of prison in Indiana and escorted by guards to her bedside at a Kankakee hospital. His clandestine visit with Lura Lynn Ryan - a three-hour drive from his federal prison in Indiana to the Illinois hospital where his wife is being treated for cancer - was revealed for the first time Friday by prosecutors in a court filing opposing bail for Ryan. (MORE...)
Anti War Activists Refusing Orders to Testify
By MICHAEL TARM (AP - 10/5/2010) CHICAGO (AP) - Anti-war activists whose homes or offices were raided as part of an FBI terrorism funding investigation will refuse to testify before a grand jury as ordered, in a show of defiance that could land them in jail. (MORE....)
Cocaine In Top-Cops Condo?
BY MEGHAN A. DWYER (Medill Reports - 10/20/2010) - After four stolen firearms and $22,000 worth of cocaine were seized at a home owned by Chicago’s highest-ranking female cop last February, a judge last month found the defendant not guilty of dealing drugs, the lone charge lodged against him. The man allegedly lived at the condo with his girlfriend, whose mother is an assistant police superintendent. Nearly 170 grams of cocaine were found stuffed inside a PlayStation. (MORE...)
Gal Pissetzky Defends Client Against Public Corruption Charges. He's the Modern Day Perry Mason…
BY JOE MUENCH, The El Paso Times ( Excerpt from: They Keep Putting Off the Judge) - Now P. has taken on noted criminal defense attorney Gal Pissetzky of Chicago. The question around town: How can P., a computer technician formerly with the District Clerk's Office, then with El Paso Independent School District, afford such a high-profile lawyer? (MORE...)
One Suspect Denied Bond in Girl's Killing
By Leah Hope June 28, 2007 (WLS) - The two men charged in the shooting death of a 13-year-old Chicago girl appeared in court Thursday afternoon. Tony Serrano and Mwenda Murithi are accused in the murder of Schanna Gayden, who was in a park when she was shot. (MORE...)
Prosecutors seek to drop some Blagojevich counts
By MICHAEL TARM Associated Press - February 23, 2011 (CHICAGO (AP)) - Federal prosecutors asked a judge for permission Wednesday to dismiss racketeering charges against ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich as he heads to a retrial, trying to simplify a case that deadlocked jurors in the first trial complained was too hard to follow. (MORE...)
Mom Found Guilty in Hazing
By Lisa Black Chicago Tribune (Nov. 13, 2003) - A woman was found guilty today of allowing Glenbrook North High Schol students to drink alcohol in her Northbrook home just hours before the teenagers participated in a violent hazing in a nearby forest preserve. (READ MORE...)
They Keep Putting Off The Judge
BY JOE MUENCH, The El Paso Times (March 30, 2008) - Whatever happened to wanting that sixth ammendment right, a speedy trial? Not in El Paso. Here you keep changing defense attorney - putting off the judge - hoping the Bible's Judgment Day comes before your day in court. (READ MORE...)
