Crime and Courts

Honey and Louie are comfort and therapy dogs at the McHenry County courthouse. Now they've officially been sworn in for service.

The following cases were considered by the Bureau County Grand Jury on July 18.

A Lombard teenager has been accused of planning to bomb an Islamic center.

Andrew Gornick pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Ogle County Circuit Court.

The defendant disseminated multiple images containing child sexual abuse material to a chat group on the instant messaging platform Kik, authorities allege.

Michael Kaemke, 54, is charged with repeatedly contacting a woman he is accused of unlawfully restraining in 2024.

A judge has sentenced a suburban bank robber to seven years and eight months in federal prison.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood wants answers about alleged federal immigration enforcement activity in Joliet that she says flagrantly violated law enforcement standards and recklessly put people at risk.

A Sheridan man has been charged with murder following the day-long investigation into the discovery of two bodies in rural Sheridan – but the suspect is not yet in custody.

A driver was charged Tuesday for a crash that killed a Princeton man on Thanksgiving weekend near Ottawa. He was using a handheld cell phone, prosecutors allege.

Kent P. Koehler, of La Salle, was charged with Possession with Intent to Deliver Heroin (more than 400g but less than 900g), a Class X Felony.

A Wisconsin man pleaded guilty to punching and kicking a woman during an altercation in a Woodstock home and was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

A Will County judge ruled there was no actual conflict of interest between the state's attorney's office and a former deputy charged with sex crimes against children.

A judge denied the pretrial release of a Bolingbrook man charged with killing his girlfriend, her 9-year-old sister, their father and grievously wounding their mother in a 2023 home invasion shooting.

A 64-year-old man thought he was arranging to meet a 16-year-old girl in Harvard for sex but found he was actually communicating with an undercover detective, prosecutors said.

Two women have had their pretrial releases revoked after they were charged with new crimes in DuPage County.

Yorkville Police say they have no evidence to suggest Tom Betsinger and the victim had any prior relationship or knowledge of one another prior to the altercation on July 13.

A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after 4,000 grams of cocaine were discovered in his vehicle during a traffic stop, according to a news release from the Kane County State’s Attorney.

A McHenry man was acquitted of charges that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in McCullom Lake. The not-guilty verdict came after the girl testified that he forced himself on her.

A Lee County judge has filed a written statement explaining his July 7, 2025, decision to allow the pretrial release of a Dixon man accused of disseminating images and videos of child sexual abuse.

Malakye Swanson, 18, pleaded guilty Monday, July 14, 2025, to the Class 4 felony offense of disorderly conduct.

A Crest Hill man was sentenced to serve 50% of a four-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to the 2024 reckless homicide of a Joliet couple but he could spend less than 10 months in prison. 

A Rock Falls man has pleaded not guilty to seven felony charges accusing him of being one of three men who showed up at a June Rock Falls garage party unwelcome, masked and armed, beat two men, threatened others and then shot at the garage while running away

A Lake in the Hills man who was convicted of defrauding the state out of more than $3 million in sales taxes from Denny's restaurants he owned is asking the court to seal related documents.

McHenry man has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual assault of a minor and, in addition to prison, must register as a sex offender.

A former executive for electric utility Commonwealth Edison has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in bribing ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan for jobs and contracts for the Democratic power broker’s political allies

An Elgin man who is already on the sex offender registry has been charged with felony possession of child sexual abuse images, according to authorities and official records.

A man residing in a Wonder Lake home in 2023 where illicit drugs and stolen license plates were found pleaded guilty Monday to possessing methamphetamine.

A Chicago man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the robbery of a Marengo gas station where an employee was shot. He will serve the time concurrent with a Kane County robbery sentence.

A Joliet woman has been ordered to pay back $20,000 after she pleaded guilty to defrauding a federal COVID-19 pandemic relief program in 2021. 

A former Island Lake man has pleaded guiltyto possessing LSD, and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

An Island Lake man is accused of possessing thousands of videos of child sex abuse.

The TALK-LINE interview for July 10 featured Lee County State’s Attorney Charley Boonstra discussing the current criminal court cases being handled by the state’s attorney’s office.

The accidents happened in sections of Orland Park and Tinley Park that are in Will County.

A Will County judge ordered a Bolingbrook sex offender charged with possession of child sex abuse materials to remain in jail after finding his pretrial release posed a danger to others.

Twin brothers from Romeoville have been granted pretrial release in a Joliet robbery case after a judge found no probable cause for charges in one of the brothers’ cases, court records show. 

Hilary Agnello, a Crystal Lake South dean and former Prairie Ridge volleyball coach, now faces for serous charges of aggravated DUI in a crash in May that caused a serious injury, court records show.

The Kankakee County State’s Attorney Office charged Jason W. Exton, of Momence, for possession of child sexual abuse images and possession of controlled substance.

Kankakee police arrested one of the victims in a shooting that occurred July 6 on the city’s east side.

The attorney for Xandria Harris is asking the court to allow her to use two affirmative defenses during Harris’ trial in September.

An Elgin man had fled from a traffic stop and led police on a high-speed chase, which was called off before he crashed into three cars, causing serious injuries to one person, authorities allege.

A Joliet woman was arrested after she allegedly yelled at Home Cut Donuts staff, brandished a box cutter and threatened them, which caused them to lock themselves in a backroom for safety, police said.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart and Chief of Victim Services Jacqueline Herrera Giron, along with the Victim Services Division, were presented with Champion of Victims’ Rights awards from Marsy’s Law for Illinois.

A victim of a robbery in Joliet reported several people struck him with handguns and stole his bag containing $300 and a vial of ashes from a “deceased loved one,” according to prosecutors.

Following a traffic crash, a former Huntley couple – convicted in connection with what authorities described in 2015 as a “drug-dealing enterprise” – have been charged with possessing cocaine, court records show.

A Colorado juvenile accused of robbing a woman at gunpoint in downtown Downers Grove has been sentenced to an indeterminate period of time in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice not to exceed his 21st birthday, prosecutors said.

A felon from Lake County, convicted of attempted murder for shooting at a car decorated with Batman decals, was sentenced Wednesday to 44 years in prison.

A former DuPage County deputy sheriff assigned to the Corrections Bureau was found guilty Wednesday of having inappropriate sexual contact with a female prisoner, prosecutors said.

An Elgin man is charged with reckless driving and fleeing the scene after crashing into three cars in Crystal Lake Tuesday.

After an overnight burglary involving an unknown offender at the Exquisite Skillet Pancake House in Plano, the police are asking anyone with information to contact authorities.