Stories by Matt Masterson

According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, 33-year-old Michael O’Connor was found unresponsive in his cell in the jail’s Residential Treatment Unit at around 4:30 p.m. Christmas day.

The Chicago Police Board will move ahead with evidentiary hearings to determine “whether the officers violated any of the Chicago Police Department’s rules of conduct and, if so, the appropriate disciplinary action,” Vice President Paula Wolff wrote in her decision.

When former Chicago alderperson Ed Burke was convicted on racketeering, bribery and extortion charges, he became the latest Illinois politician and powerbroker to face accusations of corruption — but he’s far from the first in recent years.

The Columbia College Faculty Union (CFAC), which represents nearly 600 part-time faculty members, announced Thursday its members had officially approved the contract, which put an end to a record-long 49-day strike.

According to Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Department of Public Health, the cause of death for Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, 5, remains under investigation, but it’s not connected to three other children who were hospitalized from the shelter Monday.

The defense teams for Michael Madigan and co-defendant Michael McClain are seeking to strike their upcoming trial date and delay all proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling in a case that could rewrite the federal bribery statute.

Mustafaa Saleh, 37, was sentenced last week to a year and one day in prison after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of wire fraud.

A Chicago police spokesperson said an investigation is underway, but it does not appear as though the boy’s death was criminal in nature.

College administrators and the Columbia College Faculty Union (CFAC) — which represents nearly 600 adjunct faculty members — jointly announced the tentative deal that would put an end to the record-long strike.

According to Chicago Police Department data, 18 total people were shot in 17 separate shooting incidents between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Closing arguments continued Thursday in the high-profile corruption case of the longtime 14th Ward alderperson and Finance Committee chair, with prosecutors zeroing in on perhaps the most elaborate of four criminal schemes Burke is charged with.

Four former Commonwealth Edison officials convicted of conspiring to bribe Michael Madigan are seeking to delay their sentencing after the U.S.  Supreme Court agreed to hear a separate case the defendants say “has the potential to upend” their own proceedings.

Closing arguments began Wednesday, more than a month after proceedings began in Ed Burke’s landmark corruption case. Prosecutors painted the longtime 14th Ward alderperson as a “powerful and corrupt” politician who was motivated by greed to “get what he wanted for himself.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of three minor, unnamed victims, alleged that Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary School teacher Andrew Castro was able to continuously abuse the boys despite prior complaints of similar abuse.

The head of Chicago’s largest police union believes his officers in his union should have the right to go to arbitration over the most serious disciplinary decisions, but reform leaders believe doing so could “set us back decades.”

In a surprise move Monday, Crimo III told the court he wishes to proceed pro se and will act as his own attorney. The 23-year-old also invoked his right to a speedy trial — pushing what had been expected to be a February 2025 trial date up to Feb. 26, 2024.

Architect Warren Johnson took the witness stand Thursday afternoon, more than a month after trial proceedings got underway in former Ald. Ed Burke’s landmark corruption case.

Eugene McLaurin, 31, pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting a federal officer and two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence, more than two years after he opened fire on an unmarked vehicle in Chicago’s Morgan Park.

The Chicago Board of Education is expected to renew the campus agreement for Urban Prep charter schools located in Bronzeville and Englewood after a judge ruled that CPS violated its moratorium on school closures by attempting to take control of the schools.

A restaurant group official said he was “taken aback” when Ald. Ed Burke brought up possible work for his property tax law firm as the pair discussed driveway permits for a Burger King undergoing a remodel in Burke’s 14th Ward in 2017.

New data from the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday shows that through the end of November, the number of homicides has dropped by 11% while shootings dropped nearly 13% compared to the same time in 2022.

Gabriella Garcia-Martinez, a firm administrator with Burke’s property tax practice, was allowed to testify Monday because she is set to undergo a medical procedure that would make her unavailable for the remainder of the trial.

Joseph Pavlik, 66, was sentenced to two months in prison, six months of home confinement and 24 months of supervised release. He also must pay a $6,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution.

In a 2-1 decision published Friday, the First District court rejected the actor’s claims that he had faced double jeopardy when a special prosecutor filed renewed charges against him after Cook County prosecutors dropped their initial criminal case.

Following the Thanksgiving break, faculty members represented by the Columbia College Faculty Union (CFAC) have entered the fifth week of the ongoing strike.

Evidence in Burke’s landmark corruption case moved into the third of four schemes the former 14th Ward alderman allegedly spearheaded, this one involving the massive Old Post Office building, which had been left vacant and run down for years before it was sold to 601 West Companies in 2016.