25-Jun-18 – Eight women and six men will decide the fate of a former Chicago condo attorney accused of murder.

Jury selection for the trial of Dr. Donnie Rudd was completed in one day, starting with 59 prospective jurors who were led into a small courtroom in Rolling Meadows on Monday.

Rudd (left), 76 years old, is charged in the 1973 death of his wife of 28 days, Noreen Rudd. Prosecutors say Rudd killed Noreen by striking her in the head on what is now Dundee Road in Barrington Hills on September 14, 1973, and staged the death to look like a traffic accident.

His motive, they say, was Noreen’s insurance policies, including one worth more than $100,000, the equivalent of $543,183 today. Noreen paid $3.90 per month for that policy and an accident insurance policy.

Rudd says he was run off the road by an oncoming car and Noreen was thrown from the vehicle. As for the insurance policies, Rudd says he learned of them from his mother-in-law after Noreen died. He suspects Noreen obtained the life insurance policy to cover expenses in the event she died of rheumatic fever, a disease she once had and was concerned would recur.

There was no autopsy and a coroner’s jury determined the death was accidental. 40 years later, in 2013, as police from nearby Arlington Heights took a fresh look at the cold case, Noreen’s body was exhumed, and an autopsy was conducted by the Kane County Coroner’s Office. This time, the death was ruled a homicide, caused by blunt force trauma to the head.

Circuit Court Judge Marc Martin (right) told prospective jurors the trial could be finished no later than Friday or next Monday at the latest. Between now and then, the testimony of more than 20 witnesses will be heard.

In the weeks leading up to the trial, there were motions from both sides, trying to limit the testimony of each other’s expert witnesses. Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy intends to call three expert witnesses, which Rudd’s attorney, Timothy Grace, said was “cumulative and duplicitous.”

Judge Martin, however, ruled that all the expert witnesses can testify – three for the prosecution and one for Rudd. His expert witness will be a medical doctor and board-certified internist who will testify about the cause of Noreen’s death.

(Left) 1973 wedding photo of Dr. Donnie Rudd, then about 31 years old, and Noreen Rudd, age 19.

Jurors asked about familiarity with case

Prospective jurors and alternates were interviewed 14 at a time. Each was asked where they lived, their occupation, about any brushes with the law, whether they were ever a victim of a crime, and how fairly they could treat the testimony of police and doctors.

They were asked about where they got their news, and whether they had heard of the case. Most had not.

In 1983, Rudd helped overhaul the Illinois Condominium Property Act. At one time, his law firm in Schaumburg had more than 2,000 clients, mostly homeowner associations. In 1994, he voluntarily changed the status of his Illinois law license to inactive after four complaints were filed against him with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.