12-Jan-16 – A grand jury has indicted former Chicago attorney Dr. Donnie Rudd (left) in the 1973 death of his wife. The indictment was announced in a brief court appearance late Tuesday morning in Rolling Meadows.

This means that after hearing the state’s case against him, a jury of at least 16 people decided there is enough evidence to charge Rudd with a crime. The 73-year-old Rudd is accused of killing his wife, Noreen Rudd, in 1973. The minimum sentence, if found guilty, is 14 years in prison. Though not charged, he is also a suspect in a 1991 murder.

Rudd was taken into the courtroom in a wheelchair. According to his attorney, Timothy Grace, Rudd is being treated for cellulitis, a skin infection, affecting his feet. Grace told Circuit Court Judge Joseph Cataldo of poor medical care he says Rudd is receiving from Cook County Jail, where Rudd is confined to the medical wing.

He says doctors at Stroger Hospital, formerly known as Cook County Hospital, are giving instructions to the jail regarding Rudd’s medical care but the jail is ignoring them and now, he says, “amputation is a real possibility.”

Grace asked Cataldo to use “muscle” in the form of a court order to get Cook County Jail to follow instructions prescribed by doctors at the county hospital.

Rudd is “doing the best he can,” said Grace (right) after the hearing. “He’s trying to get the best treatment he can but that’s tough when the Sherriff’s department doesn’t follow the rules.”

Rudd’s next hearing is scheduled for January 22.