Agency's challenge prompts court to change order
A Lake County judge Tuesday agreed to modify his order regarding treatment for a Kildeer man found psychologically unfit for trial.
Associate Judge Christopher Stride said he would change his March 18 order that Paul Olsson, 20, be sent to the maximum security hospital in Chester to read he "recommends" that it be the treatment facility.
Illinois Department of Human Services attorneys had balked at the original order and allowed Olsson to remain in Lake County jail. They said the agency has the sole power to determine where a patient is treated.
Olsson is accused of molesting four boys in 2005 when he worked as a coach at the Lincolnshire Bath and Tennis Club.
Attorneys have been wrestling ever since over Olsson's fitness to stand trial. Part of that involves Olsson's protracted battle with the court system, believing it is conspiring against him.
In October, he was sent to the DHS hospital in Elgin after the first finding he was unfit for trial.
Olsson was returned to Lake County in January after being declared fit by the staff in Elgin and a Lake County psychologist.
A jury found Olsson unfit to stand trial March 14 after a weeklong trial. During that trial, Elgin hospital staff testified they found Olsson fit after he was at the hospital for 46 days and he refused to participate in any treatment or therapy programs.
Stride said Tuesday he ordered Olsson to be treated at Chester only because he believes Olsson has "needs and problems that should be addressed by a different treatment team" than the one that testified at trial.
However, he said he did not want to get into a battle over authority while Olsson sits in the county jail receiving no treatment.
After conferring with defense attorneys and prosecutors, Stride agreed to modify his order.
Lake County Assistant Public Defender Keith Grant said DHS officials had told him it was not out of the question Olsson would wind up in Chester, but the agency wanted to make that determination independent of the court.
Stride set a May 2 deadline for DHS to file a treatment plan for Olsson with the court.