Riverside resident David Navarro, who has served as a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County in 2017, is getting a promotion. He will soon become a judge on the Illinois Court of Appeals.
The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Navarro, who is currently the acting director of the pre-trial division in Cook County, to the appellate court. Navarro will assume his new position as an appellate judge on Feb. 6, replacing Judge Maureen Connors who is retiring.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to serve in this new role,” Navarro told the Landmark.
Navarro has spent all his time on the bench in Cook County bond court or overseeing bond court. He was appointed to the bench in 2017 and was elected in the 4th Judicial Subcircuit in 2018.
He was appointed chief judge in the pre-trial division in 2021. In his role as acting director of the pre-trial division, Navarro has played a significant role in the preparations for eliminating cash bail under the provisions of the Safe-T Act, which was to have gone into effect in Cook County on Jan. 1, before an Illinois Supreme Court ruling temporarily halted its implementation.
Navarro, who grew up in Riverside, was a prosecutor before becoming a judge. He served as an assistant Cook County state’s attorney for 16 years and then served for eight years as the chief of the Public Integrity Bureau of the Illinois State Attorney General’s office.
He graduated from Riverside-Brookfield High School and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago before getting his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law.
