The HCBullet: The blog of the Attorneys at HCB

Seventh Circuit Grants Police Officer Qualified Immunity for Taser Use on Active Resister

December 21, 2018

Plaintiff Patrick Dockery filed suit against two City of Joliet police officers after he was tased four times during his booking on charges of trespass and criminal damage to property. Two videos were entered into evidence: the security camera footage from the booking room and the Taser’s camera’s black-and-white footage and audio. Summary judgment was denied…

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Court Dismisses Wrongful Death Suit Against County Officials Based on Tort Immunity

December 21, 2018

A Livingston County judge has dismissed a wrongful death suit stemming from the 2015 death of a man who drowned after a vehicle he was driving was swept away, overturned and submerged by raging floodwaters near the intersection of county and township roads. His estate claimed that the county, its sheriff and engineers were aware…

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County’s Financial Resource Director May Be Terminated for Political Reasons Without Violating the First Amendment

December 5, 2018

In Bogart v. Vermilion County, et al., No. 18-1719 (Nov. 26, 2018), Nikki Bogart filed suit alleging that her rights under the First Amendment and Equal Protection clauses were violated when she was fired from her position as Financial Resources Director by the new County Board Chairman a few months after he took office. Bogart,…

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Seventh Circuit Awards Summary Judgment to Jail Officers in Intoxicated Detainee’s Fall from Upper Bunk

December 4, 2018

The Seventh Circuit reversed an Indiana District Court’s denial of summary judgment to two correctional officers on duty when a detainee fell from an upper bunk and ruled that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity on the claims regarding the fall. In Lovett v. Herbert, No. 17-1668 (7th Cir. Oct. 29, 2018), an arrestee…

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Inmate’s Suit Dismissed Under Res Judicata

December 4, 2018

The Honorable Richard Mills in the Central District of Illinois dismissed a federal civil rights lawsuit in favor of the Chief of Corrections, the Sheriff, and the County of the Kankakee in Shehadeh v. Downey, et al. Case No. 18-cv-3165 (C.D. Ill. October 22, 2018). Plaintiff, Jamal Shehadeh, a prisoner in federal custody, alleged that…

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