Mary Therese Quinn

Name: Mary Therese Quinn

Party: Democratic

Age (as of Election Day): 58

Current residence: Oak Forest

Current position: Owner, Mary Quinn Attorney at Law, 2011-present

Past legal experience: Cook County assistant state’s attorney, 1989-2011

Campaign funds available: State elections board does not list any reports filed by candidate’s committee this cycle.

Campaign funds spent: State elections board does not list any reports filed by candidate’s committee this cycle.

Law school: IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1988

Campaign website: maryquinnforjudge.com

Family: Husband, two children

Hobbies/interests: Traveling, reading, watching movies, spending time with friends

Have you ever run for office before?

Yes, this is my fourth time running for the bench. I ran in 2004, 2006, 2010, and I’m hoping this will be it.

Why should voters support your candidacy?

I’ve got 30 years’ experience as an attorney, and all the jury trial litigation experience, both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney, so I’ve seen it from both sides.

Due to my litigation experience and being in court — especially as a state’s attorney — on an everyday basis, I know how to run a court call. I know what a case is worth from being both a prosecutor and defense attorney.

I’m very ethical and known to have a very good demeanor and knowledge of the law. I have integrity. I’m known for my temperament, that I would be fair to everybody and treat everybody with respect. Because that’s probably one of the things I would criticize some judges for. Some of them don’t have the requisite knowledge, but I think more importantly, you have some judges that there’s something wrong with the temperament (and I don’t know why because they’ve got one of the best jobs in the world). It’s an honor to serve. And just the way some judges treat people, various people in the courtroom, they don’t treat them with the respect they deserve.

Why do you want to be a judge?

I think I would be good at it. I really do. Because of the experience I have being in court on a daily basis and dealing with the public, I care a great deal about my clients. It would be somewhat of a natural progression, after doing this for so long.

I think it’s a very important job and it affects people more than they realize. Whether it’s a traffic ticket or a civil suit, a divorce, it can really have an impact on your life. And not that a mere traffic ticket will determine your life, but it really makes an impression on people.

I don’t think people trust judges, and there needs to be some more transparency there. And I just think I would be a good judge, and I believe in our legal system, and I believe in treating people with fairness, deciding cases on the facts and treating people equally, the way they deserve to be treated and taking the job seriously.

What was the most interesting case you handled as a lawyer?

It was probably this cold case I had years ago when I was an assistant state’s attorney in Markham. Like, a 30-year-old murder case where this woman had been murdered by her ex-husband. It was a strange case. She was murdered in Chicago; she got in a van, and was murdered somewhere on I-57. There was an arrest for her husband. They had an abusive relationship. A warrant was issued. They recovered her van down in Texas and the gun that she was shot with in her house — she was murdered, and the gun was recovered in her own home.

He was picked up 30 years later. When he was picked up, I think it was a mortgage fraud in federal court, and when he was fingerprinted the warrant popped. I remember one of the aliases he used was Ronald Duck, like Donald Duck, so he could remember it, I think.

We had the gun, but he gave a statement where he said it was basically self-defense. We came back with a second-degree murder conviction, which I think was good because of the amount of time that had elapsed.

The gun had been destroyed in a flood. Harvey always loses weapons — you know what I mean. It was either a flood or a fire. We did have the ballistics report, so there was no question the gun was recovered but sent to processing, and the gun was destroyed.

She was killed in the late ’70s, and the case was in the late ’90s or early 2000s. So much time had elapsed, and he said it was self-defense and that she pulled a gun on him. She was shot, but he claimed he threw the gun away, which wasn’t true, so that was a little strange.

But we were lucky to get second-degree because of how much time had elapsed. Her family was wonderful to deal with. That was one of the most interesting things.

What would you consider your greatest career accomplishment?

Probably as a defense attorney, I would have to say winning a jury trial a couple years ago out in Skokie. It was a gun case, and it was a tough case because my client had a background and he was charged with use of a weapon by a felon.

There were no body cams or videos, but it was like a traffic stop; he was a passenger. Police saw him hiding a gun. We couldn’t put him on because of his criminal conviction — he had convictions for weapons and drugs. But we won the trial.

I believe most police officers are honest, but it wasn’t believable with what the officers testified to; it didn’t make sense both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney. There’s at least three sides to the story after you’ve been a prosecutor for a while: what the police say, what the defendant says, and what the truth is. That was a nice win.

Then, as a state’s attorney, there was a sexual assault, also in Harvey, of a woman that had some mental impairments. It was a home-invasion, a rape. That was a jury trial in Markham. I felt like I got justice for her. It’s so hard living in Harvey, most people are law-abiding, and this woman was living on the fringes of society. He threw this rock through her window and jumped in and attacked her, so it felt good to get some justice for her.

What qualities do you plan to bring to the bench?

I would bring litigation experience, because I do have all the jury trials and motion experience, and just being in a courtroom. How to dispose cases, how to make offers and move a call along. Hard work, taking it seriously, knowledge of the law. If you don’t know something, there’s no shame in asking for help and researching it.

Treating people equally, treating people with respect, and being fair and impartial. You can’t control an outcome when you’re a litigant, but you should be treated fairly and with respect, so I think that’s very important.