Cook County judge, ripped for 'insensitive' racial comments, dumped from bench

All but one of 138 associate Cook County judges have won new four-year terms, after a secret vote in which only the county’s circuit judges can vote.

The only one dumped from the bench: Richard Schwind, an associate judge since 2012 who’d been criticized for racially insensitive comments.

Schwind, who didn’t return calls seeking comment, was reassigned last year after telling an African American defendant, charged with assaulting a white man who used a racial slur against him, “You were never a slave, but you take offense to it.”

The Chicago Bar Association had urged the county’s circuit judges not to reappoint Schwind and one other associate judge, Luciano Panici, saying they were the only two judges who sought the group’s approval who weren’t qualified. Before the secret balloting, the bar group had said Schwind’s “statements to minority litigants appearing before him are insensitive, improper and evidence bias.”

Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/6/5/18654456/richard-schwind-cook-county-associate-judge-selection