Lake County Coroner Withdraws From Democratic Primary, May Run as Independent

Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd won’t seek another term on the Democratic ballot, but left open the possibility of running in the 2016 general election as an Independent.

Rudd decided Monday to withdraw from the Democratic Primary rather than fight a challenge to his nominating petitions, the Lake County News-Sun reports. Two Republican committeemen filed petition objections on the basis that Rudd signed petitions that he had not circulated himself.

Rudd called the move a Republican “witch hunt,” and told the News-Sun he would be “unbeatable” at the ballot box, even if he runs as an Independent.

The one-term coroner was criticized by Lake County law enforcement for releasing information in the September death of Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.

From the News-Sun:

“Rudd raised the possibility that the officer’s death in September might have been suicide. Some authorities investigating the case raised objections to Rudd’s comments but ultimately determined that the officer did in fact take his own life.”

Rudd also made headlines earlier this year in another prominent Lake County case, changing the manner of death in the 2009 case of 16-month-old Deerfield boy Benjamin Kingan, who died at a Minee Subee daycare in Lincolnshire. For years Kingan’s death had been ruled a homicide, but Rudd changed it to “undetermined” after X-rays surfaced showing the boy suffered no wound to the head.

Melissa Calusinski, a Carpentersville woman, is in the midst of serving a 31-year sentence after being convicted of Kingan’s murder in 2011.

After Rudd’s withdraw, former deputy coroner Michael Donnenwirth is the only Democrat on the primary ballot. Donnenwirth had been fired from his post as deputy coroner following an incident in which he sold beer outside the Genesee Theater in Waukegan.

He will face Republican Michael Cooper in the general election.

more via the Lake County News-Sun