A 37-year-old West Side woman was charged with child endangerment after her one-year-old grandson ingested small amounts of cocaine and PCP from pieces of aluminum foil in her home, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. After family members noticed the boy was lethargic he was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where doctors founded traces of the drugs in his system. 

Yolanda Beck, who has a long history of drug arrests, faces one misdemeanor count of endangering the life and health of a child, according to police.

Suburban Chicago police officer Randall Caudill Jr. was ordered held on $200,000 on charges that he was plotting to steal from suspected drug dealers, the Chicago Daily Herald reported. The arrest came after a lengthy undercover investigation. He made his first court appearance via video feed from the jail after having already been charged with four counts of official misconduct.

Randall Caudill's counsel, Chicago criminal defense attorney Jeff Fawell, said he is trying to lower his client's bail so he can be with his family as he awaits trial:

"He's not a flight risk. He has three kids he adores and would never abandon."

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that 35-year-old Edward Brown and 26-year-old Steven Fox, a Chicago rapper commonly known as "Sincere the Realist," were charged with beating a man to death for accidentally scratching the rapper's car. 

Victim Larry Brown accidentally caused minor damage to Steven Fox's car when he was returning home early in the early hours of June 17, according to assistant state's attorney Yolanda Lippert. He reportedly didn't even know his car grazed the other car, so he left it parked in front of his home.

Edward Brown and Steven Fox followed him, starting yelling and then attacked him with his fists, according to Yolanda Lippert. 

City Hall lifted its two-year slowdown in hiring just a day after off-duty Chicago Police officer Michael Bailey was killed in what officials believe was a robbery, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Plans are underway to add as many as 100 additional officers.

Sadly, Chicago criminal defense attorneys have no shortage of new clients as the city grapples with an escalation of violent crime. The slaying of Michael Bailey, who was less than one month away from retirement, marks the third killing of a Chicago officer in two months.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Matthew Moustis, the son of Will County Board Chairman Jim Moustis (R-Frankfort), was charged with stabbing another teenage boy during an argument over a girl.

Pat Barry, a spokesman for Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas, said the alleged stabbing took place last Wednesday evening in a parking lot at Indian Trail School. Frankfort Township fire fighters arrived first on the scene and found the 18-year-old victim on the ground with a slashed neck and a stab wound in the abdomen.

After six weeks, the prosecution has finally closed its case against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The former governor was charged with corruption on suspicion of trying to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

Prosecutors finished up with a testimony by Patrick Magoon, CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital. He said that less than a week after then-Governor Rod Blagojevich pledged $10 million in state funds for the hospital, his brother called and asked him for a $25,000 campaign donation:

"I felt threatened; I felt at risk, and I felt a little angry. But what caused me the greatest concern was that the governor had the sole power... I felt the commitment could be rescinded."

West Side resident Lisa Baywood's bail was set at $1.5 million on charges that she set her disabled boyfriend on fire, burning 65 percent of his body, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Doctors at Stroger Hospital don't expect him to survive and said his condition is too unstable to perform skin grafts.

Now her Chicago criminal defense attorney has the unenviable task of defending against charges of attempted murder, aggravated arson, heinous battery and aggravated domestic battery.

Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Chicago's handgun ban unconstitutional, the city passed a new gun ordinance banning gun shops within the city limits, as reported by the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere. But while legal observers debate over whether the new law will survive legal scrutiny, Chicago continues to suffer from gun-related violence.

Two people were killed and at least 19 were injured due to violence, mostly from gunshots, just this past weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported. Eight of the injuries occurred from Saturday evening through early Sunday morning.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Randolph Walker, who is suspected of robbing the TCF Bank branch at 120 S. Riverside Plaza three times, was arrested outside the bank after an employee saw him.

The 59-year-old Pittsburgh, Pa. native was charged in US District Court with one count of bank robbery. He is accused of robbing more than $4,000 on May 10 from the bank.

And given the evidence likely to be used against him, he'll need a particularly experienced Chicago criminal attorney to help defend against the serious charge. But more charges may be forthcoming.

Five years after two young girls were murdered in Zion, Lake County prosecutors are rethinking their case in light of new DNA evidence, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. It appears they may have charged the wrong man in the murders of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias.

Keith Grant, an assistant public defender assigned as the Illinois criminal defense attorney for defendant Jerry Hobbs, said DNA taken from 8-year-old victim (and Jerry Hobbs' daughter) Laura Hobbs matches another man:

"Since we developed this profile, we have been confident that it leads to only one conclusion, and that is that our client is innocent."