[Peace-discuss] News-Gazette Donnell Clemons

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Shooter will be held in mental health care facility
By Mary Schenk

Saturday March 1, 2008

URBANA – The man who shot at and wounded two Champaign police officers  
last summer near a city park will be held in a mental health facility  
no longer than June 5, 2092.

Department of Human Services officials could decide that Donnell  
Clemons, 47, might not need help that long, but they would have to  
petition a court to release him.

In January, Clemons was found not guilty by reason of insanity of the  
attempted murder of Deputy Chief John Murphy and Officer Shannon  
Bridges, who were among several officers responding to the north side  
of West Side Park on June 7, 2007, to a report of a man with a gun who  
had threatened another man.

The potential release date 85 years down the road set by Judge Heidi  
Ladd represents the maximum amount of time Clemons could have been  
imprisoned had he been convicted of the attempted murders.

At a hearing Friday, the date was set and Assistant State's Attorney  
Steve Ziegler and Public Defender Randy Rosenbaum agreed to the  
contents of a DHS report that said basically that Clemons needed  
continued mental health treatment in a secure setting.

"I just had a nice conversation with him before court," said Rosenbaum  
of his client. "For the last couple months since he's been medicated,  
he's been very easy to talk to, to work with."

Champaign psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jeckel evaluated Clemons and found  
that he had long suffered from chronic schizophrenia and could not  
appreciate the criminality of his conduct.

He opened fire on the officers as they approached his car. They  
returned fire and Clemons was also hit. He was hospitalized about five  
weeks.

Bridges was the most seriously wounded officer hit by gunfire. She is  
still not back to work, having lost part of her left lung as a result  
of the shooting. She also had a broken collarbone. Murphy was hit in  
the protective vest, but the shot caused an injury to his abdomen.

Officer Jack Armstrong was hit in the back of the leg with a bullet  
fragment, but it appeared to have been a ricochet from one of the  
gunshots exchanged.

DHS officials are required to file reports on Clemons' progress with  
Ladd every 60 days.
  Find this article at:
   
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2008/03/01/ 
shooter_will_be_held_in_mental_health
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