Ex-Illinois judge gets year in prison for mortgage fraud

CHICAGO – A former Illinois judge convicted of mortgage fraud has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

Former Cook County Circuit Judge Jessica O’Brien sobbed loudly in court Thursday before U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin handed down the sentence.

O’Brien was convicted of fraudulently obtaining mortgages for Chicago investment properties and illegally pocketing more than $300,000 more than a decade before she became a judge in 2012. She resigned from the bench in September.

O’Brien gave a rambling and tearful statement to the court, at one point saying, “I’m an embarrassment!” Durkin called a recess so she could collect herself.

A native of the Philippines, O’Brien was the first Asian elected president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.