Federal trial of ex-Ald. Carrie Austin may not proceed due to her health: judge

Chicago Tribune

16-04-2025

A federal judge will soon decide whether the corruption trial of former South Side Ald. Carrie Austin should proceed, citing her worsening health as putting the case in jeopardy.
U.S. District Judge John Kness said in a 20-minute hearing Wednesday that he would make a decision April 23 about whether to accept a Northwestern cardiac doctor's opinion that Austin is medically unfit to stand trial. The trial had been set for later this month.
He reminded the lawyers that he had not yet made a decision and promised a prompt resolution to the question of whether the former alderman can face a jury after her attorneys first said she was medically unfit in November 2022. That motion came a little more than a year after Austin was accused of bribery, lying to FBI officials and other charges alongside her chief of staff, Chester Wilson. In that motion, her lawyers asked that her case be severed from Wilson's.
Federal prosecutors argued that severing the case would only be appropriate if trial preparation and proceedings would endanger Austin's health or life.
'We don't see things like this very often,' Kness said.
Austin has been in poor health for years. She collapsed on the City Council floor shortly before she retired her legal team's motion to sever described as suffering from 'chronic and worsening heart failure,' and a breathing condition 'that makes her feel like she is drowning when she lays down, so she can only sleep in a recliner.'
In the indictment, officials alleged a developer working on a 91-unit project in Austin's Far South Side ward provided improvements at Austin's home and an investment property Wilson owned, in return for help getting the project through City Council starting in 2016.
Austin was not present at Wednesday's hearing, having had her appearance waived.
One of her attorneys, Thomas Durkin, said Wednesday that Austin's conditions had prevented her from cooperating with her legal team and he did not believe that would change going forward. He said prosecutors 'completely ignored' the possible toll of trial preparations in making their case: 'If for some reason her health miraculously comes back… then that's a different issue.'
'This is not the case of the century,' he said. 'It is hardly the magnitude of the (disgraced ex-Alderman Edward M.) Burke trial.'
Austin, now 75, represented the 34th Ward in City Council for more than 30 years, making her the body's second-longest serving member after then-Ald. Edward M. Burke, who was convicted of sweeping racketeering charges in 2023 and is currently serving his two-year sentence in federal prison. She had announced her intention to plead not guilty to the charges and would have been set to stand trial in November.
Another city council member, former 11th Ward Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, was federally indicted months before Austin in 2021. That case is also still playing out: the U.S. Supreme Court overturned two of his convictions late last month, after he'd already served his four-month prison term.