CHICAGO — Voters kicked a Cook County judge out of office for the first time in nearly three decades Tuesday. Judges are required to stand for retention in elections every six years and must receive 60 percent of the vote to keep seat on the bench. But after one judge was sued for helping frame two innocent men, described as "condescending and otherwise disrespectful" toward non-white people in his courtroom and criticized for issuing lenient sentences for police whiles issuing disproportionately harsh sentences for minorities, one judge failed to meet that threshold for the first time since 1990.

Circuit Judge Matthew Coghlan, who was first elected to the bench in 2000, received just 52.5 percent of the vote in 2018 with 98.5 percent of precincts reporting, according to unofficial results. He could not be reached Wednesday, as a listed phone number had been disconnected and his attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judges removal had been the goal of a campaign by local lawyers, progressive activists and community groups after an investigation by the website InjusticeWatch examined his judicial record.

Ahead of the election, Coghlan also lost support from the Cook County Democratic Party, which usually supports all judges up for retention, with its chair, Board President Toni Preckwinkle, releasing a video calling for voters to "dump" him.

"This year the party is holding judges more accountable. That is why we will not be endorsing Judge Matthew Coghlan for retention due to his conduct admitting false testimony that resulted in wrongful convictions," Preckwinkle said in the video.

Coghlan was found to be "not qualified" by the Chicago Council of Lawyers. While noting that lawyers generally regard him as having strong legal knowledge, some lawyers, "particularly those who are non-white, believe that he can be condescending and otherwise disrespectful toward non-white lawyers and defendants in his courtroom." The council said there was a mix of opinions as to whether Coghlan was biased in favor of prosecutors and said it was "concerned" about his past work in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

Brendan Shiller, an attorney who helped organize efforts to remove the judge told InjusticeWatch Tuesday night that he believed the defeat was a step toward more attention on judges in future elections. Between 30 and 40 percent of voters often do not even bother to vote in the "yes" or "no" judicial retention races, the site reported.

"I think what we've seen is that a group of young activists sought change in the criminal justice system," Shiller said. "And the Democratic party recognized the importance of the issue."

Coghlan was sued in June by two exonerated former inmates who accused Coghlan, who spent 13 years as a Cook County prosecutor before becoming a judge, of helping disgraced former Chicago police detective Reynaldo Guevara frame them for a 1993 murder while an assistant state's attorney. Coghlan denied the allegation, arguing in a court filing he never met one of the accused men on the day in question, but records reviewed by InjusticeWatch cast doubt on the veracity of that claim.

InjusticeWatch's investigation of Coghlan found he issued harsh sentences against people of color (such as one-year jail sentence for black people convicted of possessing marijuana) and light ones when police are charged. After a jury found Chicago police officer Richard Bolling guilty of aggravated DUI, reckless homicide and hit-and-run for fatally striking a 13-year-old on a bicycle, Coghlan was criticized for handing down a sentence of just three years in prison. And when former Skokie police officer Michael Hart pleaded guilty to battery for slamming a woman's face into a concrete bench in a jail cell, Coghlan allowed him to receive probation.

Coghlan becomes only the 15th judge removed from office in more than 50 years of retention elections. In 1990, six judges were voted off the bench in one election, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time, and before that only eight other Cook County judges had been removed. One of the ousted judges worried that vote would set a dangerous precedent, a concern that has not been borne out over the course of the last 13 elections and 2018 years.

In Cook County, merely being voted out of office does not necessarily keep a judge off the bench. For instance, Judge Michael Gerber, another longtime prosecutor whose record has been spotlighted by InjusticeWatch and who lost his primary in March, has been mentioned as a front-runner for an appointed position when his temporary appointed term ends at the end of November. Other judges have found he engaged in a "purposeful due process violation" and misled a jury in convictions that were later overturned.

More: Cook County judges' committee funding effort to oust Coghlan »

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Top photo: Judge Matthew Coghlan (Campaign photo via Committee for Retention of Judges in Cook County)
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