[Cprb] Just FYI - Article from 2003 about Urbana police misconduct

[Walling, Jennifer]

Just FYI,  This is an article about the suit in which the city of Urbana had
to pay out to a guy whose neck was broken by the police last year.
-jen walling
 
Urbana man wins civil suit against the city 
   Published Online Mar 15, 2003 
   By STEVE BAUER 
   News-Gazette Staff Writer

    URBANA - A federal jury awarded an Urbana man $373,000 in a civil rights
suit against Urbana police, finding that an officer violated the man's civil
rights when he broke the man's neck during an arrest in 2000. 
    ?I feel good that justice was served,? Robert Earl Smith, now 33, said
after the verdict by a jury of five men and seven women was announced in
U.S. District Judge Harold Baker's court in Urbana Friday. ?I just hope it
don't happen to nobody (else).? 
    The jury found the city of Urbana and Officer Brian Willfong liable for
violations of Smith's Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by use of
excessive force and denial of due process. The jury also found against Smith
and for another Urbana police officer, ruling that Matthew Bain was not
liable for any damages. 
    Urbana Police Chief Eddie Adair said later Friday afternoon that the
city will consider whether to appeal the case. 
    ?I am very disappointed,? Adair said of the verdict. 
    In addition to the $373,000 in compensatory damages, Willfong and Urbana
also will be required to pay court costs and reasonable attorney fees. Judge
Baker advised Des Plaines attorney William Kernik, representing Urbana and
the officers, and Smith's lawyers from the Chicago law firm of Loevy and
Loevy - that there are strict deadlines for filing claims and appeals. 
    The lawsuit, filed Aug. 22, 2001, also named Champaign County as a
defendant for failure to provide medical treatment for Smith once he was
injured, but the county agreed to pay Smith a settlement of $25,000 just
before the trial began Monday, according to Jon Loevy, lead attorney for
Smith. Champaign County Auditor Michael Frerichs confirmed Friday that a
requisition was filed with his office Tuesday for a check for $25,000 to be
paid to Smith and his attorneys. 
    The suit stems from an incident on Oct. 2, 2000, when Urbana police
officers were dispatched to investigate a possible domestic battery case on
Eads Street. 
    Loevy said in final arguments that evidence in the trial indicated Smith
displayed no evidence of any neck injury when he ran from police and tried
to climb a fence. But after he was caught and ordered down from the fence,
Smith was tackled by Willfong, the attorney said. 
    Smith became angry and swore at the officers, but even then, there was
no evidence of injury, Loevy said. It was only when Smith was lying on his
stomach on the ground, with his hands cuffed behind him and when Willfong
put his knee on Smith's back and pulled back Smith's head that Smith's neck
was broken, Loevy argued. 
    ?After they got him down and had him under their power, they pulled his
head back,? Loevy told the jury. ?That was excessive force.? 
    Loevy also argued that after Smith's neck was broken, he lay quietly and
motionless, that he needed help walking to the squad car, and that for 12
hours in the jail, he lay on the floor of a cell complaining of pain. 
    After he was released from the jail, Smith first went home but then was
taken to Carle Foundation Hospital, where Dr. Richard Rak diagnosed Smith's
neck fracture, calling it a ?hangman's fracture,? Loevy said. 
    Smith had $41,000 in medical bills, Loevy told the jury. 
    The city had a use of force policy that permitted officers to use such a
technique, Loevy said. Before the trial, Adair had testified in a deposition
that such a practice was permitted when a subject being arrested was
combative or assaultive. But the police chief changed his testimony at
trial, saying the city didn't have such a policy, Loevy said. 
    For the defense, Kernik argued that police may use reasonable force when
a person is acting like Smith was, saying that the Urbana man was
intoxicated and irrational that night. 
    Kernik denied that Willfong or any officer snapped Smith's neck back and
denied that the Urbana police policies allow an officer to do so. 
    
    You can reach Steve Bauer at (217) 351-5318 or via e-mail at
sbauer at news-gazette.com <mailto:sbauer at news-gazette.com> . 

 
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