Former Illinois Judge Reports to Prison in Florida

A former judge charged after a colleague died at a Pike County, Illinois hunting lodge will spend the next two years in a Florida prison.  

Michael Cook pleaded guilty last fall to a felony weapons charge and a misdemeanor heroin charge. Cook was charged after his friend and fellow judge, Joe Christ, died of cocaine intoxication on March 10 of 2013 in Pike County Illinois. The two men were visiting a hunting lodge owned by Cook’s family near Pleasant Hill.

Cook had been the subject of a federal investigation into drug use. Two other men who sold drugs to Cook also are serving prison terms.