Judge dismisses meat of lawsuit 

A federal magistrate judge has sided with the Sangamon County sheriff’s office in a lawsuit filed by the brother of a man who died after an altercation with deputies who deployed Tasers more than 20 times.

In his ruling last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Schanzle-Haskins rejected claims that deputies used excessive force on Patrick Burns, who lost consciousness after his confrontation with deputies and died days later.

After using cocaine, Burns, an accountant for the state who had no significant criminal record, had broken into a north end home shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan. 23, 2010. In a craze, he attacked the woman who lived in the home with his bare hands, but she managed to get him outside. He was dressed in a T-shirt and underwear, sitting on the ground at the edge of the woman’s yard, when deputies arrived.

Burns was initially calm enough when law enforcement arrived that one deputy went into the house to speak with the woman while other deputies stayed outside to question him. He went berserk and started striking deputies when a deputy began photographing injuries that Burns received while breaking into the house. Four deputies deployed Tasers 21 times during the struggle with Burns, who was hogtied and taken to Memorial Medical Center. He became passive shortly before arriving at the hospital and died five days later. A state police investigator assigned to the case testified during inquest proceedings that Burns had struggled hard enough to bend handcuffs that had been placed around his ankles.

Sangamon County coroner Susan Boone, who resigned in 2011 after questions arose about her competence in the handling of several cases, said that Burns died from a condition known as excited delirium. A coroner’s jury ruled the cause of death as undetermined. A pathologist hired by Richard Burns, Patrick Burns’ brother, conducted an autopsy and found that Burns had died due to brain injury caused by lying prone while in restraints.

Noting that home invasion is a felony, Schanzle-Haskins decided deputies didn’t use excessive force or otherwise violate Burns’ constitutional rights while arresting him or while he was struggling during the trip to the hospital.

“Burns was actively resisting and trying to escape from the moment that Burns punched (Deputy Terrence) Roderick in the stomach until after he left the scene in the ambulance,” Schanzle-Haskins wrote in dismissing claims based on the deputies’ conduct during the arrest and for most of the trip to the hospital. “Thus, even if the repeated use of Tasers and hogtying Burns may be considered deadly force, the use of that force was legally justified.”

Burns quit resisting about one minute before the ambulance arrived at Memorial Medical Center but he remained prone and hogtied until about nine minutes later, when medical personnel found that he had stopped breathing in the emergency room. The judge did not dismiss claims that deputies and the ambulance crew should not have left Burns prone and hogtied once he stopped struggling, which the plaintiff says put Burns’ life in jeopardy.

A mediator is scheduled to meet with both parties next week in hopes of resolving what’s left of the case without a trial. Dwayne Gab, Sangamon County chief civil counsel, said that the judge’s ruling precludes the plaintiff from collecting attorney fees from the county.

“We got an extremely favorable ruling from the court,” Gab said. “The case was pretty much gutted.”

Richard Burns said that his family has forgiven the deputies, but he’s lost faith in the government.

“The government has turned the Constitution into a farce by protecting Patrick’s killers with bogus legal hogwash,” Burns wrote in an email to Illinois Times. “My brother had a right to justice, but received none. He was murdered, plain and simple. He was not given his day in court.”

Chief deputy Joseph Roesch of the Sangamon County sheriff’s office said that Taser use by deputies has decreased in recent years, in part due to improvements in training but also because potential targets have learned to respect the power of a Taser.

“I can’t give you a number,” Roesch said.

“It’s gone down a little bit.”

Arbitrator considers shoplifting incident

An arbitrator last week heard testimony in the case of Sherry Waldron, the Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who pleaded guilty to stealing groceries in 2013.

Waldron was caught shoplifting just a few weeks after a jury acquitted her of theft for taking plants from Sherman park in 2012. The county fi red Waldron before her trial, and an arbitrator ultimately ruled that she should be reinstated with back pay. The county earlier this year wrote a check for more than $223,000.

This time, a different arbitrator will decide whether Waldron should be fi red for shoplifting groceries from the Schnuck’s supermarket at 1911 E. Sangamon Ave. Dwayne Gab, Sangamon County chief civil counsel, said that he expects a decision in October.

Chief deputy Joe Roesch said that the department is sticking to its position because deputies must be held to a high standard of integrity.

“We believe we’re doing the right thing, morally, for the community and our agency,” Roesch said.