A former associate of Cook County Judge Jessica Arong O'Brien pleaded guilty Friday to her role in a $1.4 million mortgage fraud scheme and is expected to testify at O'Brien's criminal trial next month.
Maria Bartko, 50, of Streamwood, Ill., pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud affecting a financial institution.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin put off setting a sentencing date until after Bartko's anticipated testimony against O'Brien, who is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 5 on mail and bank fraud charges stemming from the same alleged scheme. O'Brien has pleaded not guilty.
An indictment last year charged O'Brien with lying to lenders to obtain more than $1.4 million in mortgages on two South Side investment properties that she bought and sold between 2004 and 2007 when she owned a real estate company and worked part time as a loan originator for a Lincolnwood real estate company. She was then also working as a special assistant attorney general for the Illinois Department of Revenue.
O'Brien was elected to the bench in 2012 as the first Filipina judge in Cook County and had most recently presided over a small-claims courtroom. She's since been reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of the criminal case.
At the time of the alleged scheme, Bartko was a loan originator at Amronbanc Mortgage Corp., where O'Brien was working part time, according to the indictment.
O'Brien allegedly used fraudulently obtained mortgage loan proceeds to purchase an investment property in the 600 block of West 46th Street in Chicago and then lied on applications to refinance the mortgage on the property as well as on a second investment property in the 800 block of West 54th Street in Chicago.
The indictment also alleged O'Brien fraudulently obtained a commercial line of credit to maintain the properties before selling them to Bartko and a straw buyer.
Asked by Durkin on Friday to put succinctly in her own words what she did, Bartko launched instead into a lengthy explanation about how she was simply following the direction of O'Brien and her superiors at the bank.
As a single mom, she said, she was looking to make extra money.
As Bartko continued, her attorney, Thomas Brandstrader, cut her off and asked the judge for time to confer with her in private. When they returned to the lectern, Bartko said simply, "I know what I said was false information."
O'Brien, who is married to a judge, immigrated to the U.S. after high school, earning degrees in culinary arts and restaurant management, according to online biographies. She then made a career change and attended John Marshall Law School, graduating in 1998 and later serving on its board.
She was the first Asian elected president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and also served on the board of governors for the Illinois State Bar Association. The judge also co-founded a foundation in 2008 that awards scholarships to law students from diverse backgrounds.
