Lake coroner named Law Enforcement Exec of the Year
Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd has been named 2015 Law Enforcement Executive of the Year by a state organization.
The recognition comes from the Illinois Association of Law Enforcement Executives, a St. Charles-based group of active and retired police leaders.
Daniel McCollum, the group's president, cited Rudd's work on the investigation into the 2015 suicide of disgraced Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz among the cases that earned the recognition. Rudd was the first law-enforcement official to publicly question whether Gliniewicz's death was a murder as it initially appeared.
McCollum also mentioned Rudd's questioning of the evidence in the Melissa Calusinski case. She was sentenced to 31 years in prison after she was convicted of first-degree murder in 2011 in the death of a toddler at a Lincolnshire day care center in 2009.
Calusinski, 28, of Carpentersville, is seeking a new trial.
"In multiple high-profile investigations ... Dr. Rudd has demonstrated that he is willing to be an independent thinker and exhibited an admirable willingness to seek the truth, regardless of how popular his actions might be," McCollum said.
Rudd is the sixth winner of the annual award. He said "he's flabbergasted and honored" by the recognition.
A presentation ceremony is planned for Friday at the Lake County government center in Waukegan.