CHICAGO – Below is information about the Cook County judges assigned to the 26th and California criminal courts who should be retained in the current election cycle. They must earn a 60% “yes” vote to keep their jobs for another six years.
CWBChicago has not historically made voting recommendations, although earlier today we made our first exception to that policy regarding Judge Carol Howard (NOT retained).
Not all judges appear on all ballots, so you may not see some of these names in your area of town.
Judge Michael McHale
McHale, a judge since 2006, made headlines earlier this year when he essentially called an assistant Cook County district attorney a liar and banned her from ever practicing in his courtroom again. A few years ago, he handled the animal cruelty case brought against the “Dreadhead Cowboy,” who prosecutors said galloped a horse until it nearly died on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
In 2018, an extensive investigation by CWBChicago into the sentences handed down that year by judges sentenced for retention found that McHale scored “high,” meaning he tended to hand out longer sentences than his colleagues.
Key McHale Stories:
Ramon Ocasio
Judge Ramon Ocasio is a Cook County judge assigned to the appeals court until further notice.
Ocasio, a former public defender and assistant attorney general in Illinois, has been a judge for 18 years.
He recently raised some eyebrows with a dissent over whether a woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death should be held in jail pending trial. His two colleagues at the court ruled that a lower court had properly considered the issues and upheld her detention.
However, Ocasio believed she was not a threat to the public because the man she was “enemy” against was dead. You can read much more about that here.
In 2020, Ocasio gave a recognizance bond to a man accused of committing a burglary while out on bail for another burglary. The man, Joseph Guardia, failed to show up for court and, in his absence, murdered 75-year-old Joseph ‘Walking Man’ Kromelis by setting fire to the beloved homeless man as he slept near a loading dock of the Trump Tower. The burglary cases are still ongoing, but Guardia received a 47-year prison sentence this week for the murder of Kromelis.
Other notable Ocasio stories:
David Navarro
Like Ocasio, Navarro is a Cook County judge temporarily assigned to a position on the appeals court. He previously served as a judge, supervising judge and acting chairman of the Cook County Pretrial Division, the division that sets initial bail conditions. Navarro’s tenure fell entirely during the bail era.
Because pretrial judges hear so many cases, CWBChicago has published nearly 300 stories about its decisions. You can view them all here.
For those with less time, our team has personally covered more than 40,000 pretrial hearings, including many by Navarro. We believe that his decisions regarding bail and release restrictions were not overly harsh or unusually weak compared to those of other judges.
Johanna Rosado
Rosado has been a judge since 2017. Some notable stories:
Arthur Willis
Willis was Navarro’s colleague in the Pretrial Division for several years, but he now serves in a criminal courtroom. He has been a judge since 2018.
Our archives contain more than 180 stories about Willis’ decisions, primarily in his pre-trial role. We believe he was one of the least restrictive judges in the division.
He took a more personal tone with the defendants when he believed they could benefit from life support instead of a bed in the Cook County Jail. He begged drug defendants for help and didn’t become one of the regular “revolving door stories.” Young men with clean criminal records who were caught with weapons could give a measured but powerful speech about the road ahead.
It is not unusual for prosecutors to drop a drug case altogether during a suspect’s first court appearance. About three years ago, our team investigated what treatment or assistance options these people received before they walked out the door.
We communicated with every agency and office that could possibly provide the answer. As you probably guessed, the answer was that the defendants got nothing at a crucial moment, when maybe, just maybe, all they needed was someone to tell them how to get clean.
A few months or even a year later, after prosecutors dismissed a drug case, Willis abruptly dropped his trial. He instructed the assistant attorney general before him to have their colleagues create a list of resources for drug addiction and recovery and bring copies of it to the courtroom so it could be given to drug defendants before they walked out the door. We don’t know if that ever happened. But it was classic Willis.
Willis Stories of Interest:
William Gamboney
Gamboney has been on the bench since 2012. Some notable stories:
Maria Brosnahan
Bronahan has been a judge for 24 years and serves as a supervising judge in the criminal chamber. In 2018, an extensive investigation by CWBChicago into the sentences handed down that year by judges convicted of retention found that Brosnahan scored “high,” meaning she tended to hand out longer sentences than her colleagues.
Important Brosnahan Stories:
Erica Reddick
In 2018, an extensive investigation by CWBChicago into the sentences handed down that year by judges convicted of retention found that she scored “low,” meaning she tended to hand out shorter or softer sentences than her colleagues. We found that she “showed a greater propensity to eliminate probation for serious crimes than her peers.” All of our Reddick stories are available here.
Michael Clancy
Our 2018 research found that Clancy, a judge since 2011, was also rated “high,” meaning his sentences tended to be longer.
Earlier this year, police arrested a man named Cleophus Polk on a warrant for failing to appear in court for five months for an ongoing stolen car case. Sheriff’s deputies brought Polk before Clancy, who promptly released him. Three days later, officials say, Polk beat a man to death with a sign on the West Side.
Key Clancy Stories:
Adrienne Davis
Davis has been a judge since 2017. You can view our stories about Davis here.
You can contact CWBChicago and submit anonymous tips by email: news@cwbchicago.com
CWBChicago was founded in 2013 by five residents of Wrigleyville and Boystown who had become discouraged by the inaccurate information presented during local Community Policing (CAPS) meetings. Our coverage area has since expanded to Lincoln Park, River North, The Loop, Uptown and other North Side areas. But our mission remains unchanged: to provide original public safety reporting with better context and more detail than mainstream media. Our editorial email address is news@cwbchicago.com
