Legally insane judge continues to serve, charged with assaulting court deputy - Chicago

A Chicago judge still sits on the bench, despite taking anti-psychotic medications and facing assault charges. Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim was legally insane, her lawyer argued, when she shoved a sheriff's deputy last year.

CHICAGO, IL (Catholic Online) - Judge Cynthia Brim has acted out on several occasions, including the incident which has her in throuble for assaulting a deputy. In that incident, she entered the Daly Center, claiming she lost her keys. Deputies showed her three sets of unclaimed keys and she took one and left.

Minutes later, she returned and tossed the keys back to a deputy, then pushed another with both hands. She was immediately handcuffed and arrested.

Her lawyer claims she was legally insane during the episode because she is required to take anti-psychotic meds. Brim has been hospitalized five times since her 1994 election as a judge, each time after going off her meds.

When not on her meds, she acts confused, irrational, and paranoid, her lawyer said.

Prosecutors say that despite her insanity it was because she made a conscious decision to go offer her meds and was therefore responsible.

Judge Liam Brennan agreed with prosecutors that Brim assaulted the deputy, however her mental state is still an issue in the case.

Brim was reelected last November to her seat as a judge.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'