James Block Zagel (born March 4, 1941) is a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and a novelist.
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Born in Chicago to Jewish parents, Zagel is the son of Samuel S. Zagel (1905–1999), a native of Warsaw, Poland who had immigrated to Chicago in 1915, and Ethel Samuels Zagel (1911–1986). Zagel earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1962 and a master's degree from the University of Chicago in the same year. He then earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1965.[1]
Zagel began his career as an assistant state's attorney in Cook County, Illinois from 1965 until 1969. He then served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois from 1969 until 1977. Concurrent to the job as assistant attorney general, Zagel ran the Criminal Justice Division in the attorney general's office from 1970 until 1977, and he also served as chief prosecuting attorney for the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board from 1973 until 1975.[1]
In 1977, Zagel became executive director of the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, a post he held until 1979. From 1979 until 1980, Zagel was the director of the Illinois Department of Revenue. From 1980 until joining the federal bench in 1987, Zagel was the director of the Illinois State Police.[1]
Zagel initially had been a finalist for a federal judgeship in 1985, but was not chosen.[2] On February 2, 1987, President Reagan nominated Zagel to be a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The United States Senate confirmed Zagel on April 21, 1987.[1]
Zagel has presided over many high-profile trials, including the 2007-2009 Family Secrets trial, which resulted in the convictions of multiple members of the Chicago Outfit, including of Joseph Lombardo, James Marcello and Frank Calabrese, Sr. He also presided over a lawsuit by atheists against the community of Zion, Illinois to get the town to remove all references to God from the town's official seal and is presiding over federal criminal charges against Illinois power broker William Cellini. Zagel also has been presiding over one of two criminal cases against Tony Rezko.
In April 2009, it was announced that Zagel will preside over the upcoming federal corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother, Robert. The judge refused to let Blagojevich go to Costa Rica to participate in the show, I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, saying Blagojevich needed to prepare a good defense and focus on the reality of the current situation. His wife Patti went instead.[3]
In August 2010, jury deliberations began in the Blagojevich trial. However, eleven days after deliberations began and after sending Judge Zagel two previous notes, the jury sent the judge a third (but rather cryptic and vague) note- which Rod Blagojevich was present in court to hear- stating that the jurors may be deadlocked (a hung jury) on at least some of the charges. Judge Zagel set a hearing in order for him and for both sides to receive further clarification. Rod Blagojevich was convicted on one charge, lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the jury was hung on 22 others. He was retried in June 2011 with fewer attorneys and the charges and the prosecution's remarks and the complexity of the evidence put forth were streamlined and shortened where possible so the jury could better understand, although the jury asked for clarification on a charge when it began deliberating. A guilty verdict on 17 of the 20 remaining counts that he was tried on in the retrial, including the most notorious charges having to do with the Obama Senate seat, was issued in late June 2011. Governor Blagojevich, because of his prior government service and typical sentencing formulations, will likely receive substantially less than the roughly 300 years that literally giving him the full span of years- the maximum possible sentence- that each and every conviction would fully amount to. He will likely receive from 10 to 15 years in total when he is formally sentenced (the judge has said he will likely be sentenced on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 or Wednesday, December 7, 2011, depending upon how long it takes both sides to make their statements on Monday and Tuesday; Blagojevich is expected to speak). This does not take into account any alterations resulting from the appeals process. The estimate is based upon multiple news agency reports of commentaries from Chicago-area law school professors who made themselves available and are known to have knowledge in that subject area. His brother Robert was not retried and the four charges against him were dropped. This has likely been Judge Zagel's most high-profile criminal case.
On December 7, 2011, Zagel sentenced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to 14 years in prison.
Zagel played a judge in the 1989 movie Music Box under the stage name J.S. Block.[4][5]
In 2002, Zagel published a novel titled Money to Burn, a fictional thriller about a plot to rob the Federal Reserve Bank.[4]
Zagel and his first wife, Chicago TV reporter Pam Zekman, divorced in 1975.[4][6]
Zagel and his current wife, Margaret Maxwell "Peggy" Zagel, live in the Streeterville neighborhood in downtown Chicago.