After 24 years at the helm of the Cook County Circuit Court, Timothy C. Evans lost his bid for a ninth term as chief judge on Wednesday. Circuit judges chose as their new leader Charles Beach, an 8-year veteran of the bench who has most recently been hearing cases in the law division, in a 144 to 109 vote.
Evans, 82, did not stop to speak to reporters as he exited the jury assembly room on the 17th floor of the Daley Center where the vote took place. Evans was first elected chief judge in 2001.
“It was a great campaign,” Beach said after the vote, visibly happy but poised. “The judiciary stepped up today, and it was a good day for all of us.”
The election was the first contested race for chief judge since 2019. Two rounds of secret paper ballot voting took place before the final result. A third candidate, Nichole Patton, withdrew from the contest and threw her support behind Beach after garnering just 14 votes in the first round.
“I feel good, it was time for change,” Patton said as she exited the voting area. “I’m very excited.”
Beach, 55, assumes the position of chief judge on Dec. 1. “We’re going to have multiple transition teams,” Beach said, “We want to collaborate with the clerk’s office, with the sheriff’s office and, obviously, other stakeholders.”
Before he was appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2017, Beach spent most of his career in criminal defense. He lost his first election in 2018, but was selected as an associate judge that year. He ran unopposed for circuit judge from the 6th subcircuit in 2022.
The chief judge is responsible for the assignments of nearly 400 judges in the county’s court system as well as administrative policy for the court. The post also entails oversight of a vast bureaucracy with a $368 million budget and nearly 3,000 full-time employees that includes the adult and juvenile probation departments, the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, the public guardian’s office, mediation programs, and many other non-judicial functions.
The focus of Beach’s campaign was on issues important to judges: personal safety, training and education, and more open communication with the office of the chief judge. In an interview with Injustice Watch before the election, Beach had little to share about his plans for the non-judicial part of the court bureaucracy. But he was also the only candidate to speak about the growing need to develop policies “in response to changing dynamics, such as the detention of immigrants in our courts.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were reportedly seen at Cook County’s courthouses this week.
Evans’ future plans remain unclear. As a circuit court judge last retained for a 6-year term in 2022, he can return to presiding over a courtroom, or he could choose to retire. When asked by Injustice Watch in August what he would do if he loses, Evans — who has spent 52 years in public office, first as alderperson, then as judge — declined to answer. “I don’t spend much time trying to figure out what will happen if I lose,” he said.
Beach expressed gratitude to Evans. “He’s led us with dignity and compassion and empathy for 24 years,” Beach said. “What he’s added to the judiciary cannot be quantified in words. He’s been a true leader.”
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What’s at stake in the race for Cook County chief judge
Incumbent Timothy Evans has served for 24 years, already the longest of any chief judge in Cook County history. Two challengers are vying for control of a court system that gavels in half a million new cases per year.
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