In 2015, Cochran took a $3,000 cash bribe from a liquor store owner — identified as Individual B — in exchange for his support of an ordinance amending the municipal code to allow liquor sales in a two-block stretch of South Cottage Grove Avenue in the 20th Ward, the charges alleged. The owner wanted to sell the business, but the area had since gone "dry," and the amendment was needed for the buyer to continue to sell liquor there.