Former Cook County Judge Patricia Martin on Friday was sentenced to four years probation after she admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bank accounts of an elderly former Tuskegee Airman to purchase cryptocurrency.

Martin, 66, who previously served as presiding judge in the Child Protection Division of Cook County Circuit Court, pleaded guilty to one felony theft count, marking a quiet end to a legal saga that involved a lawsuit, a petition for criminal contempt of court, a $1.1 million default judgment and a disbarment.

The accusations against Martin, who retired from the judiciary in 2020, were first revealed in a lawsuit and attorney discipline complaint that alleged she took nearly $250,000 from the bank accounts of 95-year-old Oscar Wilkerson, a friend whose financial affairs she was supposed to manage.

In November 2020, a doctor who held a power of attorney for Wilkerson asked Martin, the niece of the man’s former spouse, to help the doctor manage his affairs as they recommended he move to an elder care facility.

On Dec. 26, 2020, Martin, the complaint alleged, holding herself as his power of attorney, closed out two of the man’s bank accounts, withdrawing $115,353.45. A few days later, Martin used the funds to purchase $110,000 in cryptocurrency in her own name.

Between February 2021 and October 2022, Martin used more of the man’s money “without authority, to make additional cryptocurrency purchases for her own benefit, as well as towards her own personal purposes,” the complaint said.

In July 2022, the senior living facility contacted the doctor to let him know that the man’s bills had not been paid in about two months, and his account was more than $41,000 in arrears, according to the complaint.

After that, the facility terminated the man’s residency.

Then, the doctor discovered the closed bank accounts with zero balances and hired an attorney.

The attorney corresponded for several weeks with Martin “without obtaining answers to his questions.”

The attorney filed a civil claim in 2022, and a judge later ordered a default judgment of more than $1.1 million when Martin failed to respond to the allegations.

Wilkerson died on February 8, 2023. A grand jury in 2023 indicted Martin on seven felony counts of theft, money laundering and financial exploitation of an elderly person.

Because of Martin’s status as a former judge, the case was assigned to McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/05/former-judge-sentenced-probation/