Jury says man is unfit to stand trial

A Lake County jury deliberated for a little more than five hours Friday before finding that Paul Olsson is psychologically unfit to stand trial.

The decision means that Olsson will for the second time be turned over to the state Department of Human Services for a treatment program designed to restore him to fitness.

Olsson, 20, of Kildeer, is charged with molesting four young boys in 2005 while he worked as a coach at the Lincolnshire Bath and Tennis Club.

He could face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of predatory sexual assault of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, but a trial is now on hold for at least the foreseeable future.

The question arose out of Olsson's protracted battle with the court system, in which he insists on being allowed to hire a lawyer on his own terms.

Those terms include finding a lawyer who agrees with Olsson's view that he has been victimized by the legal system and will seek redress.

Judges, prosecutors and his original defense attorney have conspired against him, Olsson has said. He refused to cooperate with the public defender's appointed to represent him.

That's a sign of mental illness rendering the client who shuns him unfit for trial, Lake County Assistant Public Defender Keith Grant argued Friday.

Grant said jurors should accept the diagnosis of a psychologist working for the court system who reported Olsson is detached from reality.

That diagnosis sent Olsson to the state-run Elgin Mental Health Center last year. After almost two months, doctors found him fit and returned him to Lake County.

Doctors there said Olsson needed drugs and therapy to combat his psychological defects, but he refused to participate, Grant said.

"Their jobs at that hospital are to restore people to fitness," Grant said sarcastically in his closing argument. "And they are so good at their jobs they can do it without doing anything at all."

Prosecutors argued it is Olsson's attitude, not a psychological problem, that shapes his views.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Ari Fisz said Olsson's rejection of appointed attorneys, because he believes things that are not true about the legal process, should be seen for what it is.

"He does not want them representing him, but that does not make him unfit," Fisz said. "It makes him stubborn, perhaps, or rigid in his thinking, but not unfit."

In finding Olsson unfit, the six men and six women on the jury decided Olsson is unable to understand the charges against him, how the legal process works and assist in his defense.

Fisz and fellow prosecutor Reginald Matthews told the jury the many motions Olsson has authored and filed in his own behalf were evidence he met the standard.

But Grant maintained Olsson merely demonstrated knowledge of the mechanics of the law, and his belief he was being persecuted was proof to the contrary.