Cook County Circuit Judge Susanne Groebner, who was a prosecutor for nearly two decades before being elected to the bench in 2020, died on Friday, Feb. 25, her family said.
Groebner, 46, who had been on high blood pressure medication at the time of her death, was found unresponsive in her Inverness home after failing to join her virtual afternoon court call, her family said.
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Groebner was born Sept. 3, 1975, in Clio, Michigan, a small town north of Flint. At Clio Area High School, she played French horn in the marching band and also played piano.
“She was in the Flint Youth Symphony Orchestra and got to play in Carnegie Hall,” her mother, Mary Ann Barloga, said. “She went to Paris with a quintet that played for the mayor of Paris. She won a lot of music awards.”
Groebner graduated from Central Michigan University and DePaul University’s College of Law, then was hired by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, where she met her future husband.
“Shortly after she started there I asked her out on a lunch date,” said Bob Groebner, an assistant Cook County state’s attorney. “I was surprised when she said yes. I took her to Potbelly’s.”
The couple was married in 2004.
“Susanne came from humble beginnings,” her husband said. “She was working in a hot dog factory when she was 15 and she bussed table’s at Butch McGuire’s to help pay for law school.”
Maria McCarthy, a former Cook County assistant state’s attorney who supervised Groebner when she was a prosecutor at the District 3 courthouse in Rolling Meadows, said Groebner was well liked in and out of the courtroom.
“Judges loved working with Susanne because she was always prepared and defense attorneys loved working with her because she was extremely fair,” McCarthy said. “Police officers loved working with her because she was relentless in her pursuit of justice.”
During her career, Groebner prosecuted approximately 100 felony jury trials in addition to various misdemeanor asnd other court actions, her husband said.
Emily Leuin said she met Groebner when they were both young prosecutors in the state’s attorney’s office and became good friends.
“She cared about doing the right thing,” Leuin said. “I had lunch with her the day before she died and she was so happy being a judge. All the hard work finally came together for her.”
In 2018, Groebner took a position with the McHenry County state’s attorney’s office to be close to her ailing father in Woodstock, family members said. He died in 2019 and Groebner was elected judge in the northwest Chicago suburbs the following year.
She was most recently serving at the Daley Center in traffic court.
“She was the best mother in the whole world,” her husband said. “Even though she was a prosecutor and then a judge, when she was home she was just a mom.”
In addition to her husband and mother, Groebner is survived by three children, Isabella, Bobby and Abigail; a sister, Christine Miller; and a brother, John Barloga. She was preceded in death by her father, John Barloga.
Services were held.
George Houde is a freelance reporter.
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