7-Jan-17 – The suburban Chicago police sergeant who traveled to Houston in 2013 to question Dr. Donnie Rudd was himself questioned on Thursday about an allegedly false statement he made to the murder suspect. Depending on how a Circuit Court judge rules, it could result in statements Rudd made to police being tossed out as inadmissible evidence.

Rudd, age 75, is a former Chicago lawyer who specialized in condominium law and in 1983 co-wrote amendments to the Illinois Condominium Property Act. He is accused in the 1973 murder of his wife, Noreen Rudd, just 28 days after they were married. The cold case was reopened in 2012, with police disputing Rudd’s claim that his wife was thrown from a vehicle he was driving on what is now Illinois Route 68 near Arlington Heights, northwest of Chicago, when he swerved to avoid another car. They say he struck Noreen in the head and staged her death to look like a traffic accident.

Rudd wants excluded from the case comments he made to investigators from the Arlington Heights police department during questioning over two days in 2013. Despite there being an arrest warrant, Rudd says he was told he was not under arrest and was not allowed to contact his attorney.

At a hearing in Rolling Meadows, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy asked Arlington Heights Police Sergeant Richard Sperando about the investigation, challenging how it was described by Rudd’s attorney, Timothy Grace, in a brief supporting his motion to exclude the evidence.

Sperando (right) described surveillance of Rudd prior to picking him up, approaching him as he left a grocery store in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, and that they had an arrest warrant just in case he did not come in for questioning voluntarily.

According to Sperando, McCarthy and others from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office were present at the questioning, observing on closed-circuit television from another room at the police station. They were in Sugar Land in case Rudd confessed but Sperando said multiple times they did not direct the questioning.

Rudd was advised of his rights, said Sperando, and that he waived them. Rudd says he would not have cooperated – including coming back to the police station the next day – if he had known police had an arrest warrant.

“Police [investigator] came down to Sugar Land to interview me,” said Rudd (left) during a recess. “First thing I asked is, do you have an arrest warrant? He said no. If he had been truthful I would have told him to get lost.”

Judge Marc Martin is expected to rule on the motion at a hearing scheduled for February 17.

Rudd was released from custody last September after posting a $4 million bond. He is staying in the Chicago area and is being treated for health issues including cancer.

Martin’s father, William Martin, is himself a former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney who prosecuted mass murderer Richard Speck and as an attorney, once represented Donnie Rudd in a case involving the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Judge Martin (right) offered to recuse himself because of the connection but both parties agreed it was not necessary.