Judge substitution and trial date highlight Rudd court appearance

Gregory Harutunian

Former Lake County Coroner Dr. Thomas Rudd walks out of the Lake county Courthouse, following a Feb. 24 arraignment hearing. A tentative July 10 date for his trial on five counts of perjury, was set by circuit court judge Victoria Rossetti. (Photo by Gregory Harutunian/for Chronicle Media)

Defense attorney Jed Stone had wasted little time, prior to former Lake County Coroner Dr. Thomas Rudd’s Feb. 24 arraignment hearing on five counts of perjury, stemming from five pages of nominating petitions that Rudd signed as the circulator.

Two days prior, he had filed a “substitution of judge” motion, seeking the removal of Circuit Court Judge Daniel Shanes. He also indicated a motion for dismissal would be filed at an April 4 status hearing, based on a section in the Illinois Compiled Statutes.

Rudd was charged Feb. 15 with five Class III felonies of perjury, one for each of the nominating pages, by signing in the blank circulator slots, which he has previously stated was done in error. The petitions were given to the Lake County Clerk’s Office by the November 2015 deadline, for inclusion on the April 2016 primary ballot. An objection was levied two business days after the date by now-Lake County Republican Party chairman Mark Shaw.

Rudd withdrew his nominating papers, received a certification of withdrawal from the county clerk’s office, ahead of a slated electoral board of review hearing.

He surrendered Feb. 16, paid 10 percent of a $150,000 bond, and did not have a formal arraignment. Shanes had signed the indictment, and was set to hear the matter, when he claimed no knowledge of the replacement motion.

“I don’t know anything about a motion,” he said at the Feb. 24 hearing. Stone proffered a certified copy, dated Feb. 22.

Shanes had presided over the Melissa Calusinski evidentiary hearings last August, where Rudd was attacked by prosecutors about the petitions, and stated they wanted to undermine “his credibility” in giving testimony, calling him a “fraud.” Rudd’s attorney, Paul Wharton, halted the line of questioning as not germane to the evidentiary hearing. Shanes later wrote a 50-page opinion, dated Sept. 14, 2016, citing Rudd’s re-election bid and the implication that the Calusinski issue was being used for publicity.

After the substitution of judge motion was accepted, the arraignment was reconvened in the courtroom of Circuit Court Judge Victoria Rossetti, across the hall. Brian Towne, a special prosecutor from La Salle County, opened with a reading of the charges. Rossetti repeated the charges and listed the potential punishments, from prison and fines, to probation. Rudd pleaded “Not guilty,” through Stone.

“We will be filing a motion to dismiss all the charges, at the (April 4 status) hearing, based on the (Illinois Compiled Statutes 720ILCS 5/) 32-2, sub-paragraph C, at that hearing,” said Stone. The hearing date was granted in the anticipation of any further motions including discovery.

The statute of the specific criminal code comes under the heading of Perjury, and states: “Admission of Falsity … Where the contradictory statements are made in the same continuous trial, an admission by the offender in that same continuous trial of the falsity of a contradictory statement shall bar prosecution therefor under any provisions of this code.”

Supporters have viewed the indictments as political retribution.

“Nothing like this has ever been done in the history of Illinois law,” said Matt Stanton, a civil attorney, and former Lake County State’s Attorney candidate.

Rudd has had an often contentious relationship with Lake County officials, during his four-year tenure, over several high-profile cases, where the cause and manner of death were changed by his office, due to scientific and forensic data. Those amended findings have also led to large financial settlements for the family members, approved by the state’s attorney’s office, and preventing the cases from reaching civil court.

With the Darrin Hanna incident, former coroner Artis Yancey’s cause of death was changed, from undetermined to homicide, as the blows he absorbed from North Chicago police batons and Tasers initiated the string of medical events one week later that caused his Nov. 11 death. Rudd also drew the ire of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, and gained national attention for refusing to commit to a “homicide, suicide, undetermined, or accidental” ruling, after the Sept. 1, 2015 death of Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Gliniewicz.

Last fall, investigators hired by an outside firm approached voters to identify if Rudd actually requested them to sign. Rudd admitted that he was unaware, and made a mistake, stating he was informed that the empty sections could be signed. The pages were notarized by Pete Covell. The unsigned circulator verification pages were included in the petitions returned to him by volunteers.

Rudd later mounted an Independent candidacy and amassed more than 14,000 signatures, but was denied a ballot spot on technicalities that were subsequently declared unconstitutional in an Effingham County court. A write-in campaign garnered more than 8,600 votes, allegedly the most in Lake County history.

Rossetti set a tentative July 10 date for the actual trial to commence.