District Court Judge Philip Reinhard granted summary judgment in an employment discrimination case filed by a sergeant and a deputy following their involvement in a fatal police pursuit. Meagan and Ryan Pettengell, a married couple working for the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office alleged they were discriminated against based on Meagan’s gender, Meagan’s pregnancy and their…
Read MoreIn January 2017, after being questioned by school officials and a school resource officer about possession of child pornography, 16-year-old Corey Walgren escaped a school office, left the campus, and fell to his death from the top floor of a parking garage in downtown Naperville. Walgren’s estate claimed the school officials and a school resource…
Read MoreThe Honorable Colin S. Bruce in the Central District of Illinois granted summary judgment on a federal civil rights lawsuit in favor of the Nursing Director of the Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department in Hamilton v. Harding Case No. 17-cv-2238 (C.D. Ill. February 11, 2019). Plaintiff, Carroll Hamilton a pre-trial detainee, alleged that his medical condition…
Read MoreA jury in the Central District of Illinois found in favor of three Kankakee County correctional officers, a corrections corporal, and a nurse in McKinstry v. Austin, et al. Case No. 16-cv-02336 (C.D. Ill. February 14, 2019). Plaintiff, Jamicquin McKinstry a pre-trial detainee at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, Illinois alleged that the…
Read MorePlaintiff Darius Turner submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Joliet Police Department seeking records relating to his arrest during the pendency of his criminal proceedings arising from that arrest. Joliet granted his request in part, redacting portions of the records pursuant to certain exemptions under FOIA. Turner filed suit,…
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