Energetic.
This is the first word that comes to mind for both retired Kankakee County Circuit Judge Clark Erickson and Kankakee County Circuit Judge Bill Dickenson when they think of longtime coworker, Kankakee County Circuit Judge Kathy Bradshaw-Elliott.
“Well, that’s true,” she said when hearing the descriptor from her colleagues.
That energy is an important component for the judge’s day-to-day work as she sits on the bench for various criminal trials.
For her decades of serving the court system in Kankakee County, Bradshaw-Elliott has been named the Daily Journal’s 2023 Female Citizen of the Year.
“She’s also very passionate about it. … As much as anybody I’ve ever met,” Dickenson said. “She truly loves being a judge, and she truly loves the work involved in being a judge.”
This, Bradshaw-Elliott said, is also true.
While the 73-year-old could have retired 12 years ago following the death of her husband, fellow attorney Roger Elliott, she chose to continue working.
And thanks to the aforementioned energy — which is aided by lifting weights each morning — she has no plans of stopping.
“I like working,” Bradshaw-Elliott said. “I like the job. Every day is different.”
THE CATALYST
Though now she can’t imagine herself doing anything else, being a lawyer wasn’t her first choice.
It also wasn’t her second choice.
The Beecher native initially was a high school teacher. She’d eventually get a master’s degree in social work and would go on to work for the Illinois Department of Human Services.
This job was the catalyst for going to law school.
“Maybe the fewer words I could say about them, the better,” she said. “After about a year of working at DHS, I decided I’d go to law school.
“You know when you hear the [DHS] stories? They’re all true. You’re watching things happen that shouldn’t be happening.”
To law school she went.
Despite being in her 30s, she wasn’t afraid of embarking on a new career.
She remarked that people often tell her, “I wish I had gone to law school.” To this, she says, “You’re never too old.”
Teaching, social work and school took her around the country. When she met and married Elliott, she returned to Illinois and took up residence in Kankakee County.
Her first job out of law school was with the Kankakee County State’s Attorney’s Office. This was when she would meet Erickson, who started with the office around the same time.
The two would spend 36 years working together, eventually both sitting on the bench as circuit judges.
“I used to call [Erickson] my second husband. He’s my work husband,” Bradshaw-Elliott said.
In addition to being energetic, Erickson shared that Bradshaw-Elliott is meticulously organized and is well known for having several filing cabinets that are constantly being fed with updates on case law.
“She’s famous for, on the spot, being able to tell attorneys or a fellow judge, ‘Wait a minute, I have a case for exactly that point,” Erickson said. “That’s indicative of the organizational skills she has … not every judge does that.”
OVER AT THE COURTHOUSE
After working as a prosecutor for nine years, Bradshaw-Elliott began sitting on the bench 26 years ago.
“We have a really great working relationship here,” the judge said of her peers in the courthouse.
Though for some, including defendants and potential jurors, a courthouse isn’t one’s first choice of a hang-out spot, Bradshaw-Elliott noted that being there often changes peoples’ perspectives on the legal system.
“I know a lot of people say, “Ugh, I don’t want to serve jury duty,’” she said. “I get people like that in the jury panel, and they end up serving and I can tell you, 100% of them said, ‘I’m so happy I served. I got to see how a jury works, I got to see how the criminal system works, the attorneys and the whole process.’
“I find that most people who come here on Monday and say, ‘This isn’t really where I want to be.’ When they actually serve — it’s not an easy experience — but they find it to be rewarding.”
She does caution potential jurors not to come with expectations from “Law & Order” or “A Few Good Men.” She said on-screen depictions of courtrooms are almost always off base.
She said prosecutors even ask potential jurors the TV shows they watch and reinforce that those series are for entertainment value and not a true look at actual proceedings.
“There’s not DNA on every case, there’s not always a footprint, they don’t always confess,” she said. “[The shows] usually are not accurate.”
There are, however, moments that seem straight out of television.
In August 2021, there was a shooting outside of the courthouse related to a gang dispute. The target had been in Bradshaw-Elliott’s courtroom just moments before the incident.
“I had a doctor’s appointment that morning. My phone was ringing at two minutes to 10 a.m. — it was the doctor calling me to make sure I hadn’t gotten shot,” she said.
FAMILY LIFE
Bradshaw-Elliott’s son, Nick, followed in his parents’ footsteps and is an attorney, having taken over his father’s Momence practice.
Though Mom and son sometimes bump into each other at the courthouse, they don’t work cases together due to conflict of interest. However, Bradshaw-Elliott said, they do sometimes enjoy chatting about case law.
Her daughter, Samantha, is a physician’s assistant in Indianapolis, specializing in pediatric cancer.
“She wanted nothing to do with law,” Bradshaw-Elliott said with a laugh.
NO ROOM FOR FEAR
Though the job does come with its set of challenges — Bradshaw-Elliott shared that the punishments and the sentencings are still difficult regardless of how many years she’s been banging the gavel — it has its rewarding aspects.
People often ask the judge if she’s afraid to live where she works. To that, she says, “absolutely not.”
She expressed that it’s impossible to do what she does and have fear. Despite having to make hard decisions that have a direct impact on the lives of community members, she doesn’t feel afraid to still be part of the community.
“I see the defendants [while out shopping] all the time, and they couldn’t be nicer,” she said. “I can tell you, the very best part of my job, I think, is when a defendant or former person in my courtroom will stop me and say, ‘Judge, you changed my life.’
“Kankakee County has been very good to me.”
And while she’s grateful to have the community at her side, the community is grateful to have her, too.
“She’s been a real positive attribute and she’s made a real positive contribution to the court system and to Kankakee County as a whole,” Erickson said.
