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Michael J. Chmiel, McHenry County Circuit Court Judge

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Michael J. Chmiel was appointed to a circuit court post in 2004 and then, two years later, won election when McHenry County was shifted into a newly-created 22nd Illinois district. In February, 2008, the Judicial Inquiry Board filed a complaint against Chmiel, based on his actions in holding an emergency bond hearing for the brother of a political ally, after a series of private conversations. In November, 2010, the courts commission reprimanded Chmiel over those conversations.

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Charles M. Travis, Cook County Circuit Court Judge

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Charles M. Travis was first elected as a Cook County Circuit Court Judge in 1996, and served until his retirement in 2004. In 2003 he was suspended for one month after a series of incidents that, the Illinois Courts Commission found, involved misusing his position as a judge to advance his own or his daughter’s interests.

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James T. Doyle, Kane County Circuit Judge

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James T. Doyle was first named a Kane County Associate Judge in 1989; three years later, he was elected as a Circuit Judge. In 2000, Doyle helped launch the county’s drug court. But in February, 2005, the Judicial Inquiry Board alleged that Doyle had systematically violated the rights of criminal defendants in his drug court, among other acts of judicial misconduct. The charges were dismissed when Doyle resigned from the bench while the charges were pending. Doyle last registered to practice law in 2012 and is now retired, collecting $128,257.08 in his pension this year.

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Oliver M. Spurlock, Cook County Associate Judge

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Oliver M. Spurlock was named a Cook County Associate Judge in 1988. He served until December, 2001, when the Illinois Courts Commission ordered him removed based on its finding that he engaged in inappropriate and sexually intimidating behavior while a judge. This year Spurlock will receive $76,986.12 from his judicial pension.

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Cynthia Brim, Cook County Circuit Judge

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In 2012, Brim was charged with battery of a Cook County Deputy Sheriff over an incident at the Daley Center, an event that led to a Judicial Inquiry Board complaint that she was unfit to serve as a judge. The Illinois Courts Commission accepted the recommendation of the Judicial Inquiry Board and removed Brim in 2014, finding that her actions “brought the judicial office into disrepute and demeaned the integrity of the judiciary.”

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James M. Radcliffe, St. Clair County Associate Judge

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JAMES M. RADCLIFFE was an associate judge on the St. Clair County Circuit Court for two decades prior to his retirement in 2007. The Illinois Courts Commission suspended Radcliffe for three months for conduct that the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit had described as a “parody of legal procedure.” He receives an annual pension of nearly $150,000. What the judge did:  On September 1, 1992, Judge Radcliffe required an agent of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission to testify about an ongoing investigation into the use of video poker machines owned by Thomas Venezia for illegal gambling at a local VFW Post. The agent, Bonds Robinson, was at the St.