A former Lake County assistant state’s attorney who was sentenced to jail for renting a hotel room in Woodstock with an 18-year-old and providing her with liquor has now had his law license suspended.
The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) said Javaron D. Buckley, 37, of Mount Prospect, will have his law license suspended for nine months.
Buckley was charged in June 2021 with providing liquor to a minor, battery making physical contact and renting a hotel room for liquor consumption by a minor.
The Woodstock Police Department responded on January 17, 2020, to a call of suspicious activity at the Best Western, 990 Lake Avenue in Woodstock.
Prosecutors said that officers determined Buckley sent an Uber to pick up an 18-year-old woman from her house and brought her to the McHenry County courthouse.
Buckley picked up the woman from the courthouse and drove her to a liquor store in the area, prosecutors said.
A criminal complaint alleges Buckley purchased a bottle of Hennessy liquor and Coca-Cola and then took the woman to the Best Western where he rented a room.
The 18-year-old told officers that Buckley touched her buttocks and would “feel me up several times” when they were in the hotel room, the complaint said.
Surveillance video an hour later showed the victim, who was barely able to walk, being led out of the hotel lobby by Buckley, prosecutors said.
Buckley was previously employed by the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office as an assistant state’s attorney from January 2018 to September 2019.
He currently works as an attorney at a private practice law firm in Waukegan, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Buckley entered into a blind plea deal with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office in the case.
He pleaded guilty to providing liquor to a minor and renting a hotel room for liquor consumption by a minor, both Class A misdemeanors. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed the battery charge against him.
McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis approved the plea deal in August 2022 and sentenced Buckley to 30 days in the McHenry County Jail.
In July, the IARDC Hearing Board found that an administrator proved Buckley “engaged in misconduct by committing a criminal act that reflects adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects,” in violation of Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(b).
During the hearing, Buckley testified that he committed a crime and said he accepted full responsibility for what he did.
Buckley’s law license, which was first issued in 2017, will be suspended effective December 10, according to the IARDC.