(MCT) — CHICAGO — A controversial case that has long been entangled in political connections was snagged by one more Monday when a Cook County judge with links to former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was randomly assigned to preside over the trial of a Daley nephew charged in connection with the 2004 death of a man in a drunken confrontation.

The potential conflict-of-interest arose moments after Richard Vanecko stood in Associate Judge Arthur Hill’s cramped courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building and entered a not-guilty plea to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of David Koschman.