Vincent Michael Gaughan

Vincent Michael Gaughan is a Cook County Circuit Court judge in Cook County, Illinois who attended the St. Vincent de Paul Church, their local parish church. He was named "Vincent".

In May and June 2008, he presided over the jury trial of the American singer and record producer, R. Kelly, in which Kelly was acquitted on all counts of child pornography charges. On June 6, 2016, Judge Gaughan agreed to name a special prosecutor for this case. On October 5, 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second degree murder. Judge Gaughan set the sentencing hearing date for January 18, 2019 and "lifted a decorum order, which will allow the Chicago Police Board to move ahead with disciplinary action against Van Dyke." The New York Times described it as the case that changed Chicago. A revealing February 10, 2015 article in Slate entitled "Sixteen Shots" by an independent Chicago-based journalist, placed the Chicago Police Department under public scrutiny. In 2015, a year after McDonald's murder, a Cook County judged ordered the City of Chicago to release police dashboard-camera video showing Van Dyke shooting the victim. Journalists Steve Bogira and Jim DeRogatis later investigated the allegations and were unable to determine the outcome of the case.

Gaughan has been active in the Illinois branch of the American Legion since the 1990s when he served as its commander.