Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim, on trial for shoving a sheriff's deputy at the Daley Center last year, has been found not guilty of battery by reason of insanity.
The verdict was handed down this afternoon by Will County Judge Liam Brennan.
Brim will now have to report to the state Department of Health for an evaluation of her mental health and treatment. She is due back in court in March.
She remains free on bond, and her lawyer said she wants to return to the bench.
Brim had approached deputies in the Daley Center last March and, without identifying herself, asked if they had found any keys, authorities have said previously. Deputies showed her three sets of keys and Brim claimed a set and walked away.
About 10 minutes later, the judge returned and, without explanation, tossed the keys toward one deputy and shoved another in the chest with both hands, according to authorities. She was then handcuffed and arrested.
Her attorney James Montgomery said during his opening statement at the Daley Center this morning that his client was legally insane at the time.
He said Brim ended up at the Daley Center last March after a confused trek there from 47th street after taking the wrong bus. Montgomery said she threw her keys as a protest against the justice system.
Brim has been hospitalized five times since her 1994 election after going off her anti-psychotic meds, according to testimony.
In 2004, firefighters removed her from a courtroom and took her to a hospital, said psychiatrist Matthew Markos.
Brim was hospitalized for 20 days after her arrest last year, he said. Markos said at the time Brim was hospitalized, she was catatonic, confused, irrational and showing signs of paranoia and psychosis.
Brim was re-elected to another six-year term as a judge in November. She was backed by the Cook County Democratic Party as well as the Committee for Retention of Judges in Cook County, a campaign committee funded by judges.
In his closing argument her attorney James Montgomery said prosecutors had "not produced a scintilla of evidence" to contradict Markos' testimony that Brim was legally insane at the time.
"This is not the action of a rational human being, this is someone acting pursuant to the symptoms of a mental disorder," he said.
Prosecutors said Brim made the decision to go off her meds and that she was "criminally responsible" for what happened.
Judge Brennan said during closings that "this court is completely convinced a battery occurred" so a prosecutor said the only issue was brim's mental state.
sschmadeke@tribune.com
Judge who shoved deputy found not guilty by reason of insanity
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Judge who shoved deputy found not guilty by reason of insanity
