The Illinois Supreme Court has taken the next step in potentially removing from the bench a Cook County judge convicted of bank fraud.
On April 26, the state high court suspended Cook County Circuit Judge Jessica Arong O’Brien from practicing law, “effective immediately and until further order of the court.” The court’s order leaves open the possibility the court can and likely will take further action on the matter in coming weeks and months.
The order from the state high court comes about two months since the court’s justices gave O’Brien until April 3 to “show cause … why she should not be suspended … and why she should not be enjoined from acting as a judge until further order of the Court.” The Supreme Court had responded to a request from the administrator of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, who was seeking court orders suspending her law license, which would prevent her from serving as a judge, and an order formally removing her from the bench.
The state high court did not take the final step in the request at this time, instead referring the matter to the Judicial Inquiry Board, which reviews and investigates complaints of misconduct against judges presiding in Illinois’ county and state courts. After investigating, the JIB could refer the matter to the Illinois Courts Commission for further action.
The April 26 state Supreme Court order provides no explanation underlying the suspension, nor did it indicate if any such written communications or arguments were received from O’Brien by the deadline.
The order indicates Justice Thomas Kilbride did not participate in the court’s decision.
In early February, a federal jury convicted O’Brien on counts of mail fraud and bank fraud for her alleged role in a scheme federal prosecutors said involved using a straw buyer to falsely obtain “loans related to the purchase, maintenance and sale of properties on Chicago’s South Side.”
According to prosecutors, from 2004-2007, before O’Brien was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court bench in 2012 as a Democrat running unopposed.
Federal prosecutors said evidence showed O’Brien partnered with mortgage loan officer Maria Bartko and “a straw buyer whom O’Brien knew” to allegedly defraud lenders into issuing and refinancing $1.4 million in mortgage and commercial loans “by making false representations and concealing material facts in documents submitted to the lenders.”
According to federal prosecutors, O’Brien used mortgage loans to purchase investment properties in the 600 block of West 64th Street and the 800 block of West 54th Street in Chicago.
Before becoming a judge, O’Brien had served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Illinois Department of Revenue in Chicago, and part-time as a loan officer for Amrombanc Mortgage Company in Lincolnwood, according to federal court documents.
O’Brien is scheduled to be sentenced in September, after the court pushed back her sentencing date from August. Federal prosecutors said she could face 30 years in prison.
The judge in the case has also rejected her motion for a mistrial, though more post-trial motions could come before a May 21 deadline.
Since she was indicted in April 2017, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans had reassigned O’Brien to “non-judicial duties,” pending the outcome of her case.