Between the last few preliminary hearings at the county courthouse in Bridgeview, Judge Colleen McSweeney-Moore knocked off warrants of folks arrested for missing court.
One young man was trying to get his bond forfeiture reversed. His lawyer claimed he mistook his date.
“Here’s your new court date,” she told the defendant, raising her voice so he’d be sure to hear it right. “You might want to write it down.”
For just a few more days, McSweeney-Moore will occupy this seat, presiding over bond court in Bridgeview. She’s retiring Wednesday after 17 years as a judge in Cook County, with plans to try criminal defense in private practice.
“There’s nothing like presiding over a trial with really great lawyers on each side advocating for their position, the judge doing her job, making correct rulings. That’s what it’s about,” said McSweeney-Moore, 56, in her chambers. “We’re involved in literally life-or-death situations.”
The daughter of a Chicago police officer and a stay-at-home mom of a large Irish brood, McSweeney-Moore took typing and shorthand classes at Bogan High School at 79th and Pulaski.
“I kind of like to think my career started in high school,” the judge said.
It was the ’60s, she said, an era when girls became homemakers or secretaries. An aptitude test she took indicated she should work at a law firm — as a secretary. She landed a good job after graduation as a legal secretary.
“I think because I was a girl I was steered toward secretary instead of a lawyer,” she said. “Then I decided I was on the wrong side of the desk, that I could do what they were doing.”
She got a degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. She landed a job in the state’s attorney’s office, already married with children.
She spent 11 years as a prosecutor, becoming the supervisor of the traffic division, and the first and only woman to supervise the 6th District in Markham.
In 1994, she ran for judge. Her first 11 years were at 26th Street, beginning in night drug court. In the mid-2000s, as her family moved from Chicago to the south suburbs, she transferred to Bridgeview.
As McSweeney-Moore steps down, she leaves a court system full of powerful women. Lady judges abound. The county’s chief prosecutor is a woman. Her elder daughter works in the state’s attorney’s office in the juvenile division, the younger is at John Marshall.
Lawyers who try cases before her say McSweeney-Moore runs an admirably tight ship. She tolerates no nonsense from attorneys who waffle or stall. She demands decorum. She yells at the unprepared and sloppy, earning the moniker “Judge McScreamy-Moore.”
“She’s intolerant of lawyers who lack professionalism,” said Peter Troy, Bridgeview’s head prosecutor. “She presides over the business of justice and demands no more of anybody else than what she demands of herself.”
Her demeanor makes lawyers better, said Joseph Barbaro, a defense attorney out of Palos Hills who met McSweeney-Moore when they both were state’s attorneys.
“When I knew I had a case in her courtroom, I was extra specially prepared because she did not tolerate being unprepared,” he said. “And because I had a certain respect for her ... I wanted to show her I knew my case and if she had a question I wanted to be able to answer it.”
Troy said McSweeney-Moore trained him in the traffic division, where he also started his career. So it’s apt she’ll have more time to teach law classes and trial workshops.
“The No. 1 thing I learned from her is to have confidence in yourself and in the position you take,” he said. “Listen to advice you get from people who have walked that trail ahead of you.”
