Oak Park police say they’re investigating “suspicious circumstances” after two lawyers — together with one that served as a listening to officer in numerous high-profile Chicago police misconduct instances — had been discovered useless of their house within the western suburb Monday evening.
Officers had been known as about 7:30 p.m. for a well-being test within a house within the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue, close to Chicago Avenue, and located the couple useless within, Oak Park spokesman David Powers mentioned in an emailed remark. Authorities later recognized them as Thomas E. Johnson, 70, and Leslie Ann Jones, 67, husband and spouse lawyers who labored in Chicago.
“On behalf of the Oak Park Police Department, I want to offer our condolences to the family and friends of Ms. Jones and her husband, Mr. Johnson, both of whom are known in the community and beyond,” Oak Park Police Chief LaDon Reynolds mentioned.
Powers launched few information about their deaths, however mentioned initial “information gathered at the scene indicates suspicious circumstances.” Reynolds mentioned the wounds sustained via Johnson and Jones didn’t seem to be self-inflicted.
A police car guards the alley of a house within the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue in Oak Park, the place police discovered two useless our bodies the former evening, April 13, 2020.John O’Neill/Sun-Times
The West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force and the Cook County scientific examiner’s administrative center had been investigating. The scientific examiner’s administrative center has now not launched information about the purpose or the style of the fatalities.
Ivy-League skilled
Johnson and Jones had been companions on the legislation company Johnson, Jones, Snelling, Gilbert & Davis.
Jones joined the company in 1988 — based via Johnson 4 years previous — and specialised in well being care, employment, zoning, civil rights and housing litigation. She earned her bachelor’s level in economics from Yale University and her MBA from the University of Chicago. She attended Harvard University’s legislation faculty and taught ethics at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
Leslie Ann JonesFb photograph
Thomas JohnsonFb photograph
Johnson, who additionally attended Harvard’s legislation faculty, were lively within the Illinois prison group for greater than 4 many years. He served as foremost suggest for the mayoral campaigns of Harold Washington, Tim Evans and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
For seven years, Johnson labored with Evans — the executive pass judgement on in Cook County — to reform the county’s bail machine, which ended in a drastic relief within the collection of folks held within the county prison earlier than going to trial.
“He was a very thoughtful and generous member of the bar who routinely embraced the best in human beings that he knew,” Evans mentioned. “He was committed to fairness and justice in the way that rings loudest when we think about what this country’s judicial system and legal system stands for.”
Johnson additionally represented the Chicago Housing Authority for greater than 24 years “in connection with its effort to transform its largest family public housing projects from dilapidated, gang-controlled high-rises into new mixed-income communities, integrated both racially and economically into the surrounding neighborhoods,” consistent with his resume.
Veteran Chicago legal professional Thomas Geoghegan had labored on instances with each Jones and Johnson and mentioned each had been continuously selfless of their paintings, “giving up themselves to other people without even mentioning it.”
“Leslie was wonderful,” Geoghegan mentioned. “She was just great and so intelligent, an omnivorous reader.”
“Tom was just a heroic, selfless lawyer,” he added. “Because he was such a remarkable person and such a decent human being, what will be left out was just how good a lawyer he was. He was the best.”
Oversaw instances…
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