Mother who attacked kids to move to halfway house

URBANA – A Champaign judge has allowed a woman who fatally stabbed one son and severely injured the other seven years ago in Champaign to leave a state mental hospital and move into a halfway house for psychiatric patients for the next five years.

Judge Michael Jones agreed with mental health specialists that Ellen Feinberg, 50, is well enough to move from the Elgin Mental Health Center to Humboldt House, a psychiatric rehabilitation center in Chicago.

In a Tuesday morning hearing that took 45 minutes, Jones ruled on the request by Feinberg's attorney, Steve Beckett of Urbana, that she be conditionally released from the Department of Human Services so she can reintegrate into society. Her treatment will continue to be closely monitored by DHS and the judge. Special prosecutor Jim Dedman of Urbana did not object to the request.

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