A raft of current and former prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, including two whose departures from the office grabbed local headlines and raised eyebrows, account for nearly a third of the 22 new judges recently appointed to the bench in Cook County.
Others on the list include those appointed to a state hate crimes commission by Gov. JB Pritzker and a longtime Illinois assistant attorney general, serving under Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
On March 20, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts announced the results of balloting conducted in February and early March, when the county’s elected circuit judges tallied their choices to fill vacancies in local courtrooms for the next two years.
Cook County seats a total of 148 appointed associate judges, out of about 400 judges total presiding over civil and criminal cases in the massive county court system.
Unlike associate judge appointments in some past years, none of the 22 selected in this round of balloting were current judges serving on the Cook County bench.
Notable selections to the bench among the 22 new judges include:
- Jennifer Francis Coleman, 53, of Western Springs. Currently working as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Coleman departed her post as First Assistant State’s Attorney under Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in 2021, after an investigation revealed she did not fully review case information before allowing another prosecutor to be suspended in the spring of 2021 while the office investigated claims the prosecutor didn’t accurately describe to a court the events surrounding the killing of youth Adam Toledo by Chicago Police. Toledo’s death was discussed prominently in the news, as anti-police activists used the incident to call for further police and prosecutorial reforms. The results of the investigation, however, revealed the prosecutor’s description of the events surrounding Toledo’s death were accurate. After that prosecutor, James Murphy, was reinstated, Coleman resigned, allegedly under pressure from within the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Coleman had served at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office as chief deputy from 2019-2021, according to her bio on Linkedin.
- Natosha Cuyler Toller, of Orland Park. Toller, 43, currently serves as deputy director at the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board. Before that, Toller had worked 16 years for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and was ultimately appointed chief of the office’s Criminal Prosecutions Bureau. However, in early 2022, Toller shocked the local legal community when she resigned from the job and the office under Kim Foxx. According to published reports, Toller said in an emailed resignation letter provided to staff that she intended to “leave this office with my integrity and reputation intact.” Foxx’s office has come under consistent criticism for its handling of both high profile and more mundane criminal matters, particularly perceived by many in law enforcement as being too lenient toward criminal activity in Chicago and elsewhere in the county.
- Several longtime Cook County career prosecutors still serving in Foxx’s office, including Torrie Luciana Corbin, 47, of South Holland; Michelle Ann Gemskie, 53, of Glenview; Sharon Arnold Kanter, 53, of Wilmette; Michael Nando Pattarozzi, 48, of Chicago; Mary Anna Planey, 50, of Chicago; and Mariana Ricardo Reyna, 46, of Chicago. According to online bios, Reyna and Pattarozzi serve as First Chairs within the State’s Attorney’s Felony Trials Division. Planey serves as supervisor of the office’s Human Trafficking Unit, with 23 years of service. Corbin serves as a supervisor at the CCSAO’s office in Markham, with more than 21 years of service. Gemskie and Kanter have served in the State’s Attorney’s Office for more than 28 years each.
- Sunil Shashikant Bhave, 43, of Arlington Heights. Bhave has served a combined total of more than 14 years as an assistant Illinois attorney general under both former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and current Attorney General Raoul. He began working at the Attorney General’s office in 2007, but left in 2011 to serve as an attorney for the city of Chicago for one year under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Bhave returned to the Attorney General’s Office in 2012, where he has remained since. As of 2021, Bhave served as the Unit Supervisor of the Civil Prosecutions/Administrative Law Unit.
- Hilda Bahena, 47, of Chicago. Bahena serves as executive director and a commissioner appointed by Gov. Pritzker to the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes. Prior to that appointment, Bahena worked for 9 years as director of the Legal Assistance Department for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
- Pamela Saindon, 60, of Chicago. Saindon currently serves as principal attorney for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Saindon ran unsuccessfully for judge in 2022. Saindon notably clerked for both former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Freeman and Appellate Justice William Cousins Jr.
- Cook County Assistant Public Defenders Jerome Celis Barrido and Lakshmi Jha. Barrido, 50, of Burr Ridge, ran for judge in the 2022 Democratic Primary for a seat in the county’s 4th Judicial Subcircuit. Barrido ultimately finished third in the race, behind winner ShawnTe Raines-Welch, wife of powerful Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, and second place finisher Chloe Pedersen, niece of Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, also a heavyweight in the Chicago and Illinois Democratic Party organizations. In comments published by the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark, Barrido said he “deliberately” challenged the candidacy of “the speaker’s wife,” because he “wanted to give the people a choice as to whether or not they wanted to go with the status quo Democratic politics or to have someone who is a fighter in the courtroom, who has a reputation as a zealous advocate and a hard worker period.” Jha, 49, of Chicago, serves as president of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
- John Wellington Wilson, 60, of Chicago. The appointment marks the second time Wilson has been appointed to the bench in the past two years. Wilson lost his bid to keep his seat on the bench in the county’s 1st Judicial Subcircuit when voters chose Maria Barlow in the 2022 Democratic Primary Election. Wilson had been appointed to that associate judgeship in 2021.
Others named to the bench include:
Mohammad “Moe” Ahmad, 41, of Rolling Meadows. He is in private practice with his Ahmad Law Firm, of Arlington Heights;
Nicole Castillo, 48, of Chicago, affiliated with the firm of Neal & Leroy, of Chicago;
Athena James Frentzas, 57, of Northbrook, affiliated with Frentzas Law LLC, of Park Ridge;
Edward James Maloney, 58, of Mount Prospect. He serves within the Office of the Inspector General for the Chicago Housing Authority;
Scott Norris, 62, of Chicago, affiliated with the Burnes Libman Law Group, of Chicago;
Brian Randall Porter, 56, of Chicago, in solo practice in Chicago;
John J. Tully, 54, of Chicago, affiliated with property tax and real estate firm Tully & Associates, of Chicago; and
Scott William Tzinberg, 54, of Northbrook, affiliated with the divorce law firm of Law Offices of Scott Tzinberg, of Chicago.