A judge was deemed biased by a Will County Board member whom he found guilty of unlawfully accessing the email account of a political opponent on the board.

On Monday, Will County Judge Derek Ewanic found Jackie Traynere, a Democrat, guilty of two counts of misdemeanor computer tampering but not guilty of a third count of the same offense.

Ewanic rendered a guilty verdict based on Traynere’s testimony that she accessed the county email account of Judy Ogalla, a Republican on the County Board, without Ogalla’s knowledge or permission.

But Ewanic determined Traynere was not guilty of computer tampering by forwarding emails from Ogalla’s account to herself and her political ally, Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, the Democratic Will County Executive.

Ewanic based his decision on Traynere’s testimony that her forwarding email to Bertino-Tarrant said, “Look what I found at the top of my inbox.”

Ewanic said that showed Traynere did not realize she was still in Ogalla’s email account.

Traynere is scheduled for a potential sentencing on April 7.

In a statement on Monday, Bertino-Tarrant said while Traynere “raised legitimate and founded concerns” about the county board’s security protocols, she is sure “we all wish that those concerns were addressed differently.”

After Monday’s verdict, Traynere said she is “disappointed.”

She claimed Ewanic, a Republican, had “circled the wagons” with the rest of the Republican Party to sustain their charge.

“It goes to bias. He’s a Republican. The Republicans pressed these charges,” Traynere said.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, a Democrat, handed the Traynere case to Special Prosecutor Bill Elward. He authorized the charges against Traynere following an Illinois State Police investigation.

The case landed in Ewanic’s courtroom following recusal by two other judges, Colette Safford, a Democrat, and Donald DeWilkins, a Republican. Traynere’s attorneys had not motioned for Ewanic to recuse himself and they allowed him to decide her fate rather than a jury.

Traynere told reporters on Monday that she is not a rival of Ogalla and the two are just “people that don’t see things the same way.”

However, Traynere said she is going to ask Bertino-Tarrant for a “forensic audit” of the county’s information technology system since Ogalla knew county board members shared the same password.

Traynere suggested Ogalla “probably” knew about how to go into people’s email accounts without “leaving any fingerprints.”

Ogalla testified she had raised the password issue with the county IT department, but the board has no control over the department.

Shaw Local has reached out to Ogalla for comment.

During Traynere’s testimony, 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.” Traynere said she was “flabbergasted” when she realized she could access Ogalla’s email account.

Traynere’s attorneys contended she “sounded the alarm” about a glaring security flaw with the county’s IT system.

But Ewanic concurred with Elward that Traynere “tripped the alarm.”

Ewanic said that out of all the county board members, Traynere chose to access an account belonging to Ogalla, who is a “party rival” to Traynere.

Ewanic said that although Traynere had contacted IT about the password issue after accessing Ogalla’s email account the first time, she did not raise concerns about that issue affecting all other County Board members.

Ewanic said Traynere only asked IT to have her own password changed at that point.

Ewanic said Ogalla did not realize what was going on until Bertino-Tarrant emailed her. In that email, Bertino-Tarrant thanked Ogalla for forwarding an email that Ogalla did not intentionally send her, according to trial testimony.

“It’s at that point Ms. Ogalla sounded the alarm,” Ewanic said.

Ewanic said Traynere testified that she believed Steve Balich, a Republican on the County Board, had emailed her mistakenly when she unwittingly remained in Ogalla’s account.

But Ewanic said Traynere did not let Balich know that he emailed her mistakenly. He said Traynere instead sent that email to herself and Bertino-Tarrant.

Balich held a news conference in 2024 where he accused Traynere of hacking into his email. On Monday, Balich said he was “really glad” Traynere was found guilty in the case.

“That hopefully will stop any future endeavors by anybody to do the same thing,” Balich said.