Ex-Lake County Coroner Pleads Not Guilty to Perjury Charges

Former Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd has pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury.

Rudd appeared before Lake County Judge Victoria Rosetti during the plea hearing on Friday in Lake County Circuit Court, the Daily Herald reports. Rudd, who served as Lake County Coroner from 2012 to 2016, could face between two and five years in prison if convicted on all five perjury counts, which were filed against him last week, and a tentative trial date has been set for July 10.

Rudd’s attorney, Jed Stone, said following the hearing that prosecutors should not “have brought charges in the case” and referred to the allegations as “political payback,” according to the Daily Herald.

Authorities allege the controversial ex-coroner broke the law when he knowingly lied about his nominating petitions while running as a democrat in the 2016 primary.

"He swore under oath that he was the circulator of the petition,” special prosecutor Brian Towne with the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor’s Office told Patch. But, Towne said, that was not the case. Each of the perjury charges is in regards to a separate document.
Rudd posted 10 percent of his $150,000 bond, allowing him to go free Thursday, the Lake County News-Sun reports.

The indictment against Rudd claims Rudd signed a general election petition swearing or affirming “that the signatures on this sheet were signed in my presence, not more than 90 days preceding the last day for filing of petitions and are genuine and that to the best of my knowledge and belief the persons so signed were at the time of the signing the petition registered voters of the Democratic Party in the political division in the political division in which the candidate is seeking elective office, and their respective residences are correctly stated as forth above.” The indictment goes on to say Rudd knew that statement was false.

The full indictment, which was filed Feb. 15 in Lake County Circuit Court, can be viewed below.

Lake County Undersheriff Ray Rose said authorities have proved about 15 to 20 signatures on the petition pages were proven to be false and one of the signatures was from a person who has been dead for over 10 years, according to the Daily Herald.

The nomination papers that are currently in question are why Rudd, who ran as a Democrat, was thrown out of the election in early 2016, the Daily Herald reports.

Rudd tried to run as an independent in the November general election but Democratic candidate, Michael P. Donnenwirth and Waukegan resident Keith E. Turner filed objections to those petitions, according to the newspaper. Those objections claimed Rudd could not run as an independent in the same election cycle that he also filed as a Democrat. The electoral board and appellate court later upheld those objections.

Authorities investigated the case for a year and are continuing to investigate, Rose told Patch. Moving forward, more people could face charges in connection with the case, he said.

Meanwhile Rudd’s attorney, in responding to media questions in whether the charges were “politically motivated” told the Lake County News-Sun following Rudd’s release last week, “I'm not saying it's politically motivated. I haven't seen the indictments yet." Jed Stone, Rudd’s attorney, did say Rudd had annoyed some “powerful people.”

“He’s one of the very few elected officials willing to speak truth to power,” Stone told the Daily Herald. “Thomas Rudd is a talented physician who calls it like he sees it, consistent with science and medicine.
“When you do that, you become a hero, but you also make enemies of people in power.”
This is not the first time Rudd has run into controversy.

During the investigation into the shooting death of Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, high-ranking authorities attacked Rudd for releasing "sensitive case information while an investigation is still under way."At a time when Gliniewicz's death was being investigated as a murder, Rudd was the first to say the death could have been a suicide. Rudd turned out to be right and authorities later said Gliniewicz staged his own death after he stole from the Fox Lake Expolorer Program he ran.

• Cops Bash Coroner for Speaking About Slain Fox Lake Lieutenant

He's also been criticized for the handling of the high-profile daycare death case involving Melissa Calusinski. In that case, he changed a prior ruling of a homicide in the death of Benjamin Kingan, a 16 month old who died at the Minee Subee daycare in Lincolnshire to undetermined.

• Lake Co. Coroner Changes Cause of Death Ruling For Boy Who Died at Daycare in 2009
• Lake County Judge Rules Melissa Calusinski Does Not Deserve a New Trial

Photo credit: Thomas Rudd for Lake County Coroner Facebook page