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Thursday, April 25, 2024
Nation/World

Former Illinois judge dies, was imprisoned for drug charge

By  Associated Press
   
SHARE Former Illinois judge dies, was imprisoned for drug charge

MARION — A former southern Illinois judge and one-time prosecutor who spent time in federal prison for trying to sneak heroin to an imprisoned ex-client has died at the age of 72.

Blue Funeral Home in Marion says Robert A. Drew died Saturday night at a Marion hospital.

Drew was sentenced in August 2011 to 16 months in federal prison after he admitted in court that he tried to smuggle drug-filled condoms in 2010 to inmate Benjamin Kramer. Kramer was serving a life sentence at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, in a drug conspiracy case.

Drew had been Kramer’s lawyer.

Drew apologized at his sentencing hearing for bringing “shame and disgrace on my family.” Federal records show he was released from custody in November 2012.

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