The Champaign County’s chief public defender is bracing for challenges due to underfunding that could lead to staff cuts and affect the quality of legal representation provided to people who aren’t able to afford a private attorney. Public Defender Elisabeth Pollock said her office has been underfunded for years—making it hard to recruit and retain staff.

The two men accused of tying up and killing a 63-year-old man in his basement apartment in Norwood Park last weekend had gone to his apartment for sex after meeting him on a dating app, prosecutors said in court on Saturday.

An Illinois appeals court has ruled a Peoria man serving life in prison for sexually assaulting a woman at gunpoint in 2020 must be sentenced again because his attorney incorrectly agreed with prosecutors that a life sentence was the only possible punishment.

The ABA House of Delegates called for increased protection for immigrants in a pair of resolutions at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix on Monday. Resolution 600 urges the U.S. government to introduce new or expand existing immigration pathways for people who must relocate to the United States because of the effects of climate change. It also urges the federal government to support vulnerable countries and communities in their efforts to combat climate-related displacement.

A St. Clair County judge ruled Monday that the owner of a west Belleville smoke shop could be released from the county jail before his trial on drug and firearms charges.

A firefighter from Roxana faces charges that accuse him of stealing $4,185 from Guns ’N Hoses, which raises money for the families of first responders who are killed in the line of duty in the St. Louis area. Jacob A. Sanders, 27, was charged with two counts of felony theft Friday, according to court records.

The family of 14-year-old Sean Richards, who was killed in July 2023 in an accident involving a Fuller’s employee in Hinsdale, questions the timing of the filing, which they say comes as Fuller’s owners and employees were expected to testify in court in a wrongful death suit.

Natalie Young, a former professor at Northern Illinois University, has filed a lawsuit alleging sex and race-based discrimination and harassment by the university. The complaint was filed on January 21, 2025, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Young accuses Northern Illinois University of creating a hostile work environment and retaliating against her for reporting discriminatory practices.

Citing a surge in the number of firearms being illegally converted into machine guns, Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has ordered prosecutors to seek a prison sentence in all felony cases involving machine gun-type weapons.

Chicago police arrested a 23-time convicted burglar after he was identified as the man who had been breaking into North Side businesses during January. Prosecutors charged Lamont Gordon, 58, with four burglaries and, even though he is on parole for his three latest burglary convictions, he was released from custody the next day.