Posted by chicagomedia.org on June 04, 2009 at 09:08:25:
Man found not guilty by insanity in attacks on TV anchor, others
June 3, 2009
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN | Chicago Sun-Times Criminal Courts Reporter
WLS-Channel 7 anchor Cheryl Burton initially thought she was shot.
Then she checked for missing teeth after a man randomly punched her on State Street last year.
"I thought I had been shot so I started feeling my body for blood or some liquid," Burton testified today at the trial of her accused attacker -- Gregory Perdue, 28, of Berwyn.
Burton, who slightly bit her tongue when she fell, never saw Perdue but remembers the severe blow that caused her to slide across the pavement as she strolled on her dinner break near Washington and State on April 23, 2008. The Channel 7 studios are nearby at State and Lake.
"I hit my head on the pavement so I started searching for my teeth because I wasn't sure what happened," said Burton, a victim of a carjacking more than a decade ago.
Although an X-Ray and CAT scans didn't reveal any serious damage, Burton said she suffered headaches for months after the attack.
"I just had very bad headaches and I had soreness. I was swollen," she said.
After Burton's testimony -- and that of several other victims -- Cook County Judge Clayton J. Crane found Perdue not guilty by reason of insanity on aggravated battery charges. He was accused of striking the television personality and five others in the fist-throwing rampage. The bench trial began and ended today.
Perdue is schizophrenic and had been institutionalized, according to his attorney, John Benson. At the time of the incident, he was reported missing by his family and living in a downtown alley, Benson said.
Assistant State's Attorney Clarissa Palermo argued that Perdue knew exactly what he was doing when he hit the victims, including senior citizens, as he snaked through the sidewalks. As evidence, Palermo pointed to the fact that Perdue was sane enough to graduate from the University of Illinois in Chicago several years ago.
"He committed these crimes because he was angry and because he had issues with elderly people," said Palermo, who noted one victims needed plastic surgery.