Politics

Federal Judge Sets Hearing After Expert Finds Ex-Ald. Carrie Austin Too Ill to Stand Trial

A federal judge could decide April 16 whether to dismiss the criminal indictment against former Ald. Carrie Austin after a court-appointed expert found she is too ill to stand trial, court records show.

Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge John F. Kness to hold an evidentiary hearing to question the expert “about her analysis and conclusion” before dismissing the charges that Austin, 75, took bribes in the form of home improvements including new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops from a developer and lied to federal agents.

Kness could grant the request for a hearing, which would serve as a mini-trial focused on Austin’s fitness to stand trial, or dismiss the charges against Austin and cancel the trial that is scheduled to start Nov. 3, nearly four and a half years after federal prosecutors first alleged that she committed crimes while representing the 34th Ward on the Far South Side.

Kness appointed Susan Russell, a pulmonologist with the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, to examine her lawyer’s claims that the former alderperson is too sick to stand trial. Austin’s “pulmonary dysfunction prevents her from participating in trial,” Russell concluded, court records show.

Austin’s “lung function has declined over time” and will struggle to “tolerate crossing town daily for both courtroom activities and daily review sessions” with her lawyers, records show. Austin would also require multiple oxygen tanks to assist her breathing each day of trial, Russell concluded, court records show.

Since her June 2021 indictment, Austin’s case was delayed by restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic, her poor health and the voluminous amount of evidence in the case.

Austin resigned from the City Council in March 2023, and did not seek reelection.

The ward map drawn after the 2020 census moved the 34th Ward, which saw a steep drop in population during the past decade, to the booming area south and west of the Loop. That newly created ward is represented by Ald. Bill Conway.

Austin earns pension payments of more than $9,500 per month, according to records obtained by WTTW News from the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago. Appointed in 1994 by Mayor Richard M. Daley, and elected six times by Far South Side voters, Austin served on the City Council for approximately 28 years and six months.

Austin has a “long history of heart problems,” including a heart attack and coronary artery disease that required heart bypass surgery in the early 2000s, according to records filed by her attorneys. In addition, Austin underwent a double mastectomy in February 2021 after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.

In April 2021, Austin had another surgery connected to a long history of life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding, according to her attorneys.

During a Dec. 15, 2021, City Council meeting, Austin collapsed and had to be revived by Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), a former firefighter.

The bulk of the charges Austin is facing involve a firm that began building a $49.6 million redevelopment in her former Far South Side ward that includes Roseland in 2014.

That development was eligible for $10 million from the area’s tax increment financing district as well as money from the “aldermanic menu” fund controlled by Austin to be used for infrastructure projects in the ward, including road resurfacing, according to the indictment.

According to the indictment, Austin accepted new kitchen cabinets — worth $5,250 — in June 2017 from the developer. The next month, the firm gave Austin two “brand new” and “expensive” sump pumps and had a representative of the firm buy and install a new dehumidifier in her home, the indictment states.

Austin also asked the developer to install new “bathroom tiles in white or vein white,” in her home, according to the indictment.

Austin is set to be tried alongside her former chief of staff Chester Wilson Jr., who is charged with bribery conspiracy and two counts of using interstate facilities to promote bribery.

Federal prosecutors plan to try Wilson separately on a charge alleging he stole government funds by orchestrating a scheme to buy Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits at a discount, officials said.

In October 2017, the firm agreed to pay for a portion of a new heating and air conditioning system at Wilson’s property because, as one unnamed individual told Wilson, “You help me a lot, and I’ll help you,” according to the indictment. Another unnamed individual said, “[If] I get what I want next week, it’s worth it” to pay for the upgrades to the property owned by Wilson, according to the indictment.

Wilson and Austin also had granite countertops installed at their properties as part of the scheme, according to the indictment.

The first indication that Austin was under investigation by federal officials came on June 19, 2019, when the FBI raided her ward office, hauling away boxes and files. After the raid, Austin denied wrongdoing.

Austin lied to the FBI that very day, according to the indictment. When agents told her that the developer had installed a dehumidifier at her house, Austin replied “not to me,” according to the indictment. Austin said she got nothing from the developer “other than a cake,” according to the indictment.

Thirty-eight members of the City Council have been convicted of a crime since 1969.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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