A judge decided a Will County Board member was guilty of two counts of computer tampering but not guilty of one count of the same offense in connection with the access to the email account of a fellow board member in 2024.

Will County Judge Derek Ewanic delivered his verdict on Monday after a two-day bench trial in the case against Jackie Traynere.

Traynere was charged last year by Special Prosecutor Bill Elward with the misdemeanor offense of computer tampering.

Traynere, a Democrat, was accused of knowingly and without authorization accessing the email of Judy Ogalla, a Republican on the County Board.

Traynere testified in the case last week. She admitted to accessing Ogalla’s email account without her permission and without advance notice on the morning of March 6, 2024.

Traynere said she had learned all County Board members shared the same password for their accounts, and she wanted to “test this idea” while she was working at her DuPage Township government office.

Traynere said she chose Ogalla’s account because she is a member of the “opposite party” on the County Board. She said if she could see Ogalla’s account, then Ogalla could see her own.

Traynere said she did not believe she could log into Ogalla’s account.

Traynere was asked by her attorney why she didn’t ask whether they shared the same password, rather logging into the account.

“I just didn’t think of it,” Traynere said.

She added she was a “very stressed-out, busy person.”

Traynere said she was “flabbergasted” when she discovered she could access Ogalla’s account and then exited the browser after 10 seconds.

She said before she went to lunch, she went into what she thought was her own email account and saw an “interesting” email from Steve Balich, another Republican on the county board.

Traynere said she forwarded that email to Democratic Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant and then to herself.

She said she forwarded the email to herself in case Balich “recalled” the message.

But Traynere said she realized she was still on Ogalla’s account. She said she logged out, went to lunch and then called Ogalla afterward to let her know that she had accessed her account to check if they had the same password.