Ex-DuPage judge charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly bringing shotgun out of his house and upsetting his Lombard neighbor
A former DuPage County Circuit Court judge was charged with misdemeanors after allegedly bringing a shotgun outside of his house during an incident involving a neighbor in Lombard, records show.
Patrick O’Shea was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, court records show. Previously, O’Shea had been removed from the bench and had his law license suspended due in part to a prior weapons charge.
About 5 p.m. Oct. 14, police reported, they were called to O’Shea’s home in the 500 block of South La Londe Avenue for a report of a man with a gun. Two men told police they were talking in the front yard of the house next door when O’Shea drove by slowly and parked in his driveway, then came out of the house carrying a gun, the police report stated.
Upon arriving at the house, at least one officer drew his pistol from its holster, and two others held rifles. Police found O’Shea in the driveway in his backyard, told him to put his hands up and get on the ground, and arrested and handcuffed him. He led them to the 12-gauge pump shotgun, inside his back door, which they confiscated.
Police reported that they saw a security video that showed O’Shea had walked out of his house with a long gun and toward his car.
O’Shea told police that the gun was unloaded, and he had taken it to his car, where his Doberman pinscher was waiting, to use it at a firing range. When his neighbor became upset that O’Shea had brought the gun out, O’Shea said, he put it back in his house.
O’Shea confirmed that he had a “negative” history with his neighbor, due to an argument a few weeks prior over an allegation that O’Shea’s dogs defecated on his lawn, the police report stated.
Asked why he didn’t have the gun in a case or take it out the back door where he had gone in, O’Shea told police that he couldn’t find the case, and that the front door was closer to the basement where he got the gun, police said. Asked why he had the dog in the car to go to the firing range, O’Shea told them that he was going to walk the dog, then bring it in before going to the range, police said.
O’Shea consented to have officers remove his firearms from his house, police reported. Police sent a “clear and present danger” form to Illinois State Police, asking them to revoke O’Shea’s Firearm Owner’s Identification card.
O’Shea was released and taken home without having to post any money for bond. His court date was set for Nov. 11 in DuPage County Circuit Court.
O’Shea had been a lawyer since 1979, and this was not his first run-in with the law. In 2017, police said O’Shea fired a gun inside his Wheaton apartment, and that the bullet went through a mirror, through a wall and into a next-door apartment.
O’Shea was acquitted of reckless conduct by a Kane County judge who said the charge was legally deficient because no one was in the neighboring unit when O’Shea fired the gun.
Nevertheless, the Illinois Courts Commission ordered O’Shea removed from the bench in 2019 on the grounds that he lied about the incident to police, and that he attempted to retaliate against two women who accused him of sexual harassment.
In August 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court suspended O’Shea’s law license for misconduct for one year, and until further order of the court.
