In December 2008, Steven Englum was employed as a police officer by the City of Charleston (City) – a non-home-rule municipality – when he was injured while exiting his police cruiser. In November 2013, Englum sent the City a letter requesting health insurance benefits under §10 of the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act (PSEBA). In…
Read MoreIn Monson v. The City of Danville, 2017 IL App (4th) 160593, Barbara Monson tripped and fell on an uneven sidewalk seam maintained by the City of Danville. Monson required nine stitches, bruising and dental work as a result of her fall. Monson sued the City, alleging that the City’s negligence and willful and wanton…
Read MoreIn Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 Board of Education, et al., No. 16-3522 (7th Cir. May 30, 2017), the Seventh Circuit Appellate Court affirmed a grant of preliminary injunctive relief that allowed a transgender boy to use the boys’ restroom while at school. Ashton (“Ash”) Whitaker is a transgender high school senior….
Read MoreOn May 30, 2017, in County of Los Angeles v. Mendez, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a $4,000,000 award in an excessive force case. In Mendez, the police entered a house looking for an armed and dangerous criminal suspect. The suspect was not found, but the owner of the house said that a homeless couple…
Read MoreChief Judge James E. Shadid in the Central District of Illinois dismissed a pro se pre-trial detainee’s civil rights complaint in favor of a correctional officer and a nurse at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, Illinois in Buckner v. Austin, et al., No. 16-cv-2058 (C.D. Ill. 2017). Plaintiff allegedly slipped and fell in…
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