They didn't make the NCAA....
"Ex-judge expected to plead guilty" by Jim Suhr | Associated Press November 02, 2013
ST. LOUIS — A former southwestern Illinois judge at the center of a courthouse drug scandal that has resulted in two overturned murder convictions will plead guilty next week to federal heroin and gun charges, his attorney said Friday.
No wonder the country has such a problem with that evil drug.
Former St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael Cook has pleaded not guilty to charges of heroin possession and having a gun while illegally using controlled substances. But a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for next Friday in federal court in East St. Louis, Ill., and Cook attorney J. William Lucco said it is Cook’s intention to plead guilty to both charges.
Lucco had no other comment.
Cook, whose trial has been scheduled for Dec. 9, stepped down from the bench in May, five days after being charged in the criminal complaint that accused Cook of being a drug addict. Cook since has sought drug treatment in Minnesota and agreed to have his law license suspended.
Cook’s legal troubles surfaced after his friend Joe Christ, a former longtime St. Clair County prosecutor and newly sworn-in associate judge, died of a cocaine overdose in March while staying with Cook at his family’s western Illinois hunting cabin. Cook, 43, has not been charged in the death of Christ, a 49-year-old father of six.
Related: Holder on Drugs
Questions about Cook’s drug use have led to overturned convictions in two murder trials over which he presided between Christ’s death and the time he was charged.
On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Robert Haida ordered a new trial for Gregory Muse, who after being convicted in March of first-degree murder alleged that Cook appeared to slur his words while reading the jury instructions before that panel found him guilty.
Haida on Oct. 2 also granted a new trial to William Cosby, who like Muse complained that prosecutors during his trial wrongly failed to tell defense attorneys that Cook was being investigated.
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"Ill. labor unions sue over plan to cut pensions" by Kerry Lester | Associated Press January 29, 2014
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Labor unions filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to throw out Illinois’s new law aimed at eliminating a worst-in-the-nation pension shortfall, a move that could delay implementation of the landmark measure.
On the eve of a State of the State address by Governor Pat Quinn, who faces a tough re-election campaign, lawyers for the We Are One Illinois coalition of unions filed the lawsuit in Sangamon County Circuit court. The lawsuit, which follows others already filed by retirees, argues that the pension bill approved by the Legislature and signed by Quinn more than a month ago violates a clause of the state constitution that says pension benefits may not be cut. It also asks the court to stop the law from taking effect until the case is decided.
Quinn is expected in his address to proclaim the pension overhaul as a definitive step in ending a crisis he has said he was ‘‘put on earth’’ to solve.
The crisis has created a rift between the governor and the state’s public employee unions. AFSCME, the state’s largest employees union, will hold an endorsement session Saturday, where lawmakers supportive of the pension package could see ramifications as they seek reelection bids....
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Related: Detroit Bankruptcy Means Government Can Break Promises
Also see: Ill. man kills 3 in his family, police say
