A judge in Illinois who was criticized for making racist comments toward defendants lost a secret vote for re-election. Judge Richard Schwind was the only judge of 138 associate Cook County judges to lose his reelection bid.
Schwind, an associate judge since 2012, was reassigned in 2018 after he told a Black defendant, “You were never a slave, but you take offense to it.” The defendant, identified as 31-year-old Deon Lindsey, was convicted in a misdemeanor battery case after he hit his girlfriend’s white brother for using the n-word,