Schaumburg suspect, ill with cancer, released from jail

A Schaumburg man who authorities allege is a mobster has been released from jail where he'd been awaiting trial on gun charges because he's terminally ill with prostate cancer.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that a federal judge ordered Charles Russell's release last month, saying he'd been held in home detention. A defense lawyer told the court that the cancer had spread throughout Russell's body.

The 68-year-old Russell, whose nickname is “Chucky,” was arrested around Christmas in 2016 and accused of illegally receiving guns in a robbery scheme.

The federal criminal complaint says Russell bragged about threatening people with a blowtorch.

The Schaumburg man once served a stint in prison for murder.

Court documents say a wiretap recorded Russell as saying he was a mobster.