Evaluation ordered for man accused of threat

A man accused of making a threat against a Lake County judge was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation Thursday.

Adam Rotheimer, 27, could be sentenced to five years in prison if convicted of threatening a public official.

Rotheimer, of the 4400 block of Riverdale in McHenry, is accused of telling a hospital social worker that he was going to kill Lake County Associate Judge Brian Hughes.

Rotheimer was supposed to be arraigned Thursday before Lake County Associate Judge Christopher Stride, but his attorney asked for that proceeding to be delayed.

Kevin Rosner of Northbrook said his client had not been getting his medication while in the Lake County jail, where he is being held on $750,000 bond.

In addition, Rosner said, he believes that Rotheimer may have a psychological impairment that renders him unfit to stand trial in the case.

Stride ordered that an evaluation of Rotheimer's fitness be prepared before any further proceedings in the case and scheduled a review of that report for April 28.

Police said Rotheimer told a social worker at Centegra Health System facility in Woodstock where he was being treated between March 3 and March 9 that he intended to kill Hughes.

Court records show that Rotheimer appeared before Hughes on a DUI charge filed by the Lake County sheriff's office on June 4, 2007.

The records say Hughes found Rotheimer was unfit to stand trial on that charge on Feb. 13, 2008, then ruled that his fitness had been restored through treatment on Dec. 17, 2008.

Rotheimer pleaded guilty to the charge on Feb. 16 of this year and was placed on court supervision, the records show.