Cook County Judge Uses Legendary Former Gang Member to Get Votes

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on Crook County,Illinois:

A former Gangster Disciples enforcer is a paid consultant for a Cook County judge running for election -- a relationship that one of the judge's opponents calls disturbing.

Michael B. Hyman was appointed in 2006 to fill a vacant judgeship and is running for election Feb. 5 against three opponents, including Brian Sexton, supervisor of the Cook County state's attorney's gang crimes unit.

Last fall, Hyman's campaign paid former gang enforcer Wallace "Gator" Bradley $11,500 for "community relations" and consulting, state election records show.

"Of all the people he could have chosen -- reverends, community leaders -- to hire someone like Gator Bradley, a self-admitted warlord for the Gangster Disciples, is a serious lapse in judgment," Sexton said.

Bernie Murray, chief of the state's attorney's criminal prosecutions bureau and a Sexton supporter, agreed.

"It's kind of surprising a judge would hire a former gang member as his liaison to get out the vote," Murray said.

But Hyman defended his decision to put Bradley on his campaign's payroll.

Bradley -- a convicted burglar and armed robber and a prominent figure in the Gangster Disciples street gang in the 1990s -- is a changed man, Hyman said.

Who decides on who's going to be slated as a judge in Crook County? Here's some background on the process.