A Cook County judge who was found to be legally insane when she shoved a courthouse deputy in 2012 was removed from the bench Friday by a state judicial panel that found that the "unpredictable" nature of her bipolar disorder put the public at risk.

Cynthia Brim, 55, becomes the first sitting Illinois judge to be booted from the judiciary in a decade and only the seventh to be removed in the last 40 years.

While expressing sympathy for Brim's mental health issues, the Illinois Courts Commission said "the only appropriate remedy" was to remove her from office because of her 18-year history of mental breakdowns and repeated failures to follow through with proper medical treatment. The decision was effective immediately.

"The public expects and deserves predictability in the judicial process, and the unpredictable and unrecognizable nature of (Brim's) mental illness places the public at risk," the commission, chaired by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier, wrote in its unanimous ruling.

Brim was found not guilty of misdemeanor battery by reason of insanity last year for shoving a sheriff's deputy outside the Daley Center during a manic episode in March 2012. A day earlier, she broke into an extended rant while presiding over a traffic court call at the Markham courthouse, announcing that the South Holland and Evergreen Park police discriminated against minorities and that she had previously been in a mental hospital.

Cook County court officials suspended Brim the following week, but she was still able to retain her seat in the November 2012 election. She has remained on suspension ever since while still collecting her $182,000-a-year salary.

Friday's ruling marked the first time the courts commission took up the issue of whether a mentally ill judge should continue to serve. Besides removing her from office, the seven-member commission – comprised of Karmeier, two appellate judges and two circuit judges from outside Cook County as well as two citizens – could have censured, reprimanded or suspended her without pay.

The Judicial Inquiry Board had brought the complaint against Brim, a judge since 1994.

In testimony in March before the courts commission, Brim sought to hold onto her job, arguing she could adequately control her mental illness with medication. She said that on the day of her rant in the Markham courtroom she was feeling stressed because only one deputy was present for a busy call of cases.

"I just broke like a pencil," she testified. "It was totally inappropriate for me to say what I did at that time -- or any other time."

Brim, who has been hospitalized at least nine times for mental illness since 1994, acknowledged she had once been carried out of a Bridgeview courtroom on a stretcher after going "catatonic" during her court call.

In its decision, the courts commission noted that Brim’s breakdowns were chronic, happened suddenly and often went unrecognized on her part.

The courts commission found that the two incidents on consecutive days in 2012 "brought the judicial office into disrepute and demeaned the integrity of the judiciary."

Brim could not be reached Friday for comment, and one of her attorneys, Jack Kennedy, declined to comment on Friday's ruling.

With Brim off the bench, the Illinois Supreme Court will appoint an interim replacement to fill the vacancy until an election, said spokesman Joseph Tybor.

The last judges to be booted from office also hailed from Cook County.

Francis X. Golniewicz III, removed in 2004, violated residency requirements and made other infractions, including calling an African-American defendant "boy." Oliver Spurlock, removed in 2001, committed sexual misconduct by touching and kissing four female prosecutors against their will as well as having sex with a court reporter in his chambers.

sschmadeke@tribune.com