Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon has been appointed special prosecutor in the Laquan McDonald case.

According to a Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office news release, Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent M. Gaughan announced today (Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016) that he had appointed McMahon as special prosecutor in the case of People v. Jason Van Dyke.

Van Dyke is the Chicago police officer charged with first-degree murder in the October 2014 shooting death of McDonald, who was 17 years old at the time. Video of the shooting was released by the city of Chicago in November 2015, and the case has sparked numerous protests, high-level media attention and reforms in the Chicago Police Department.

Upon the appointment of McMahon as special prosecutor, Gaughan set Van Dyke’s next appearance for 9 a.m. Aug. 18, 2016, in Courtroom 500 at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building, Chicago.

Afterward, McMahon made a statement to the assembled media.

“This is an important case involving serious allegations,” he said. “It should be handled by a public prosecutor and an experienced prosecution team. This is a job I’ve been asked to do, and it’s what the public expects of its state’s attorneys.

“My team will consist of four other prosecutors – Jody Gleason, the first assistant state’s attorney for Kane County; Marilyn Hite Ross, the first assistant state’s attorney for Winnebago County; Joe Cullen, a Priority Unit assistant state’s attorney for Kane County; and Dan Weiler, a felony assistant state’s attorney for Kane County.

“I am limited in what I can say about this case now and at every stage pretrial. I cannot talk about any aspect of actual or potential evidence, and I cannot offer opinions about the case.

“We have one goal in this case, and that’s to present the truth in court and seek justice.”

The charges against Jason Van Dyke are not proof of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial in which it is the state’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

About Joe McMahon

SOURCE: Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office website

Joe McMahon was appointed Kane County state’s attorney in November 2010.

McMahon is a lifelong resident of Kane County and a 1984 graduate of St. Edward High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1988 from the University of Iowa and his juris doctor from the John Marshall Law School in 1992. In 2006, he earned a master’s in business administration from the University of Notre Dame.

McMahon began his legal career in 1992 as an assistant state’s attorney in Kane County prosecuting criminal cases, including traffic, misdemeanor, felonies, sexual assault, gang-related crimes, crimes against children and the elderly, and first-degree murder and death-penalty cases. From 1998 to 2000, he served as chief of the Criminal Division of the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office and supervised a staff of 28 lawyers and all criminal prosecutions in Kane County.

McMahon also worked as an assistant attorney general for the state of Illinois, prosecuting white-collar crime, public corruption and healthcare fraud.

Before he was appointed Kane County state’s attorney, McMahon was in the private practice of law, representing small and mid-sized organizations and their principals as their outside general counsel.

McMahon is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, having previously served as chairman of its Corporate Law Department Section Council, chairman of the Sentencing & Corrections Committee and currently is a member of its Judicial Evaluation Outside of Cook County Committee. He is a member of the Kane County Bar Association and served on the board of directors of Fox Valley Volunteer Hospice, the largest all-volunteer hospice organization in the United States.