A Rough Day For Cook County Justice

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 29, 2008 7:53PM

Do we ever get to read good news about Cook County? Probably not until 2010, and even then it's a crap shoot.

Yesterday afternoon a fight broke out in Cook County Judge Nicholas Ford’s courtroom, after a defendant was acquitted in a murder trial. According to the Sun-Times, the "melee" broke out when the victim's family began fighting with the defendant and the defendant's family. Three deputies rushed in to break up the fight, and even Judge Ford stepped in. When all was said and done six people were in custody, three county deputies were being treated for "non-life threatening injuries," and two others were hurt as well. The judge was not injured.

As if that weren't bad enough, a fight broke out less than two hours later at the county jail, and three inmates were stabbed in what jail officials are calling a gang-related fight in the jail's maximum security wing. According to Penny Mateck, a spokeswoman for the Cook County sheriff's office, the fight broke out in a day room in Division 1 around 5:40 p.m. Four shanks were recovered from the area by jail officials, who declined to name the prisoners, or elaborate on why the fight was suspected to be gang-related.

Image via Cook County Sheriff