A Lake in the Hills taekwondo instructor pleaded guilty to possessing images of children being sexually abused and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Two minors have been taken into custody and face child pornography charges of A!-created nudes depicting Richmond-Burton High School students.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said Tuesday that, “after nonstop agonizing,” he has chosen not seek re-election in November. He'd just won the GOP primary last month.

Kenneally: According to court data, crime among those on bail/pre-trial release is up over 40% in the first three months of the SAFE-T Act when compared to the same time-period in 2022.

Crystal Lake is now home to two marijuana dispensaries, while another cannabis shop is heading to McHenry.

DCFS chid protection specialist in AJ Freund case guilty of child endangerment, supervisor acquitted.

With cash bail no longer allowed, many inmates jailed under the old system are now seeking release while they await trial.

In a rare move, the former child welfare agency workers were charged criminally for allegedly failing to follow procedures that might have prevented the boy's slaying.

Under the bail reform system, which kicks in Monday, defendants can't be held in jail awaiting trial merely because they can't afford bail.

A Crystal Lake police officer broke into tears Monday as she spoke of her disbelief when a child protective specialist from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services allowed AJ Freund, a bruised 5-year-old boy, to leave the police station with his mother.

McHenry County medical marijuana card holders and others criticize State's Attorney Pat Kenneally's move to ban information around medical pot uses

Elizabeth Alvarado-Garcia suffered at least 40 stab wounds before police shot and killed her attacker, Daniel Alvarado-Aguilar, on June 3 in front of the woman's Harvard home. The McHenry County State's attorney called the shooting justified.

Officials hope additional security cameras covering more areas of a Fox River Grove motel will reduce the number of drug-related overdose deaths reported there, McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said Friday.

McHenry County’s top prosecutors were recognized as “heroes” recently by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the prosecution of the Crystal Lake parents who killed 5-year-old AJ Freund in 2019.

A criminal investigation tied to the D’Andrea Banquets fire is ongoing, an attorney for the city of Crystal Lake said in a letter to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

During an at-times contentious meeting filled with public comment and back-and-forth questions about civil liberties, safety and morality, the McHenry County Board passed a resolution opposing Illinois’ recent gun ban.

Bringing new business and housing to Marengo depends on how the city develops land at the new interchange at Route 23 and Interstate 90, Marengo Mayor John Koziol said.

Nearly 40 residents spoke Tuesday at the McHenry County Law and Government Committee meeting about a resolution denouncing the new gun ban in Illinois

The lawsuit, filed by State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally, calls the new law a “clear violation of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution."

A McHenry County gun shop is part of a group seeking to put a temporary halt to the new Illinois gun ban, the latest step in a federal lawsuit filed last week by the group challenging the law’s constitutionality.

A man accused of shooting two men in a Huntley home in July – one who later died – before fleeing the country and then being captured in Pennsylvania pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder.

A McHenry County gun shop is among a group of plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of Illinois’ ban on high-powered semiautomatic weapons and large capacity magazines that took effect last week.

The elimination of cash bail set to take effect Jan. 1 will no longer be happening in McHenry County, the county’s chief judge and top prosecutor said.

The McHenry Police Department and the McHenry County State’s Attorney have partnered to create new forensic tech lab, to be housed at the McHenry department, to help them extract data from mobile phones.

The McHenry County Board approved raising its portion of residents' property taxes, which will add about $14 onto a $7,000 bill.

A Kankakee County judge could weigh in on the constitutionality of the state’s SAFE-T Act as soon as Dec. 15, court records show.

McHenry County could raise property taxes, or will have to make cuts, in order to balance part of its budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Three McHenry County officials took aim this week at a bill passed 18 months ago by the Illinois House of Representatives in a move one political observer said seeks to add “to the narrative about the danger the public is in with the Democrats in control of the state.”

Thomas DeVore, the Republican candidate for Illinois attorney general, told voters in Crystal Lake Wednesday that he views his role, now and moving forward, as protecting the state’s constitution from Democratic overreach, starting with a repeal of the SAFE-T Act.

Questions remain over whether the elimination of cash bail in the SAFE-T Act will make McHenry County more or less safe, but the new law does not mean jail gates will swing open and alleged murderers and rapists will walk out as opponents of the law insist, legal experts say.

McHenry County, joining 18 other Illinois counties, filed a lawsuit against several big-name pharmacies, including Walmart, CVS and Walgreens, pinning blame on them for the nation’s opioid crisis.

Writing that JoAnn Cunningham’s constitutional rights were not violated, a McHenry County judge Wednesday dismissed the post-conviction petition filed by the former Crystal Lake mother serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son.

A Woodstock man faces decades in prison after he was charged Wednesday with possessing with the intent to deliver 15 to 100 grams of meth, court records show.

McHenry County could receive $3.41 million as part of a nationwide negotiated settlement of a 2017 lawsuit filed against large opioid manufacturers and distributers as retribution for lives lost due to drug overdoses, the state’s attorney says

In interviews and court filings, McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally argued that ICE will end up transferring most of the people in the county jails to other parts of the country, further away from their families and legal teams

A Crystal Lake man on Friday was sentenced to prison for the 2017 shooting deaths of his wife, Allania Yarber, and her 15-year-old sister, Anniyah Reynolds.

The woman accused of stabbing and killing a married couple in their Algonquin home and then stealing their Buick to flee to Colorado arrived Wednesday at the McHenry County Jail.

New hearing date set for 10 a.m., Jan. 15

Lawyers cited “a rapid spike” in COVID-19 cases in Lawrenceville Correctional Center – where the man accused of killing a McHenry restaurant owner in 2001 awaits news of the appeal that could set him free – in asking that the man be released.

The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office will not enforce Governor JB Pritzker's ban on indoor dining, State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally announced Wednesday.

A court hearing Thursday in Douglas County, Colorado, could provide details about the extradition of an Algonquin woman charged with stabbing and killing her boyfriend’s elderly parents.

McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks and State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally are gathering signatures in an effort to put a question on the April 2021 ballot that could abolish Algonquin Township, according to a Tuesday news release.

Letters from a prisoner serving decades for the murder of a McHenry restaurateur reveal that attorneys have discussed a deal that could get him out of prison within the next five years.

After 17 months of denying before a McHenry County judge any involvement in the death of his 5-year-old son, AJ Freund, Andrew Freund Sr. pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated battery of a child, involuntary manslaughter and concealment of a homicidal death.

Prosecutors will have to show former caseworker Carlos Acosta, 54, and his supervisor Andrew Polovin, 48, were not only neglectful and endangered Freund, but that it was their activity or lack of activity that caused the death of the child

Body camera footage tied to the potential excessive force investigation of a McHenry County sheriff’s deputy shows the deputy putting his arm across the throat of a 31-year-old woman before handcuffing her on the ground.

A McHenry County sheriff's deputy is on paid administrative leave pending a criminal investigation into a potential inappropriate use of force during an arrest that occurred in Woodstock last month.

The Northwest Herald will be providing live updates from Thursday's sentencing hearing for JoAnn Cunningham in the death of her son, AJ Freund. Reporters Amanda Marrazzo and Katie Smith, along with Editor Jon Styf, will update throughout the day.

Kenneth Smith’s convictions and sentence have been vacated, and the court now will need to either start the process of retrying Smith – for a fourth time – or release him by mid-June.

A recent increase in the number of orders of protection filed at the McHenry County Courthouse seems to correlate with the COVID-19 stay-at-home order put in place by Gov. JB Pritzker on March 21, Turning Point Executive Director Jane Farmer said.