Indicted former Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) has been found not medically fit for trial by an expert appointed by the federal judge presiding over Austin’s nearly four-year-old criminal case.
Defense attorneys say that should be enough to call off her trial, set for Nov. 3. But prosecutors say they still want an evidentiary hearing to gather “additional facts” from the expert “about her analysis and conclusion” so U.S. District Judge John Kness can make a more informed decision.
For now, the lawyers are jointly asking Kness for a status hearing “as soon as possible.”
Since July 2021, Austin has faced a bribery indictment accusing her of taking home improvement materials such as sump pumps, a dehumidifier and kitchen cabinets as kickbacks from a developer overseeing a $50 million development in her ward.
At the time, it made her one of three sitting members of the Chicago City Council under federal indictment. Former alderpersons Edward M. Burke (14th) and Patrick Daley Thompson (11th), who have since left the City Council, were convicted by juries and sent to prison.
Austin left the City Council in 2023. But since late 2022, Austin’s lawyers have argued she is not fit for trial. They’ve pointed to her collapse during a December 2021 City Council meeting and said doctors found she had a condition caused by a partial collapse of the lungs.
They said her breathing issues then worsened, as did pain in her legs and chest. They argued she had a condition that made her feel like she was drowning when she was lying down, so she could only sleep in a recliner. And they said she struggled to walk even with the help of portable oxygen.
Prosecutors countered that Austin had been surveilled by the FBI, and she was seen walking without assistance — and without the use of oxygen.
More recently, Kness appointed pulmonologist Susan R. Russell of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute to prepare a report on Austin’s fitness. Russell’s examination of Austin found that her “pulmonary dysfunction prevents her from participating in trial” as described by lawyers, records show.
Russell also found that Austin’s “lung function has declined over time,” that she would likely require multiple oxygen tanks to get through each trial day, and is not likely to “tolerate crossing town daily for both courtroom activities and daily review sessions with her lawyer[s].”