BELLEVILLE – Sheriff’s sergeant James Hendricks handcuffed pastor Curtis Levingston as he preached at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist church in East St. Louis on June 27, according to a lawsuit filed in St. Clair County circuit court.
BELLEVILLE – Local resident Stephen Misselhorn, who rolled through a green light into the path of a driver fleeing from deputy Eric Tracy, sued St. Clair County sheriff Rick Watson and Tracy in circuit court on May 5.
BENTON – Thirteen inmates at St. Clair County jail sued Sheriff Rick Watson at U.S. district court on Feb. 9, claiming he failed to protect them from coronavirus.
BENTON – St. Clair County Sheriff Rick Watson and the estate of former jail inmate Joshua Jurcich settled a wrongful death suit for $850,000 on Feb. 25.
BELLEVILLE – Not guilty but not free, David Fields spent the night of Dec. 10 in St. Clair County jail after 12 jurors found he didn’t murder Carl Silas.
The brother of a detainee who hung himself at the St. Clair County jail in May 2014 has been awarded $301,000 in damages in a wrongful death trial against Sheriff Rick Watson and the county that played out in federal court in Benton.
BENTON – St. Clair County Sheriff Rick Watson must defend a claim of deliberate indifference in a jail suicide, U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle ruled on Oct. 4.
CAHOKIA – Pension benefits for former Cahokia police chief Rick Watson, now St. Clair County sheriff, were boosted by 33 percent in his last 35 days as chief, according to records of the trustees and the state insurance commission.
BELLEVILLE – Lawyers for murder suspect David Fields continue receiving evidence four months after lead investigator Justin Biggs swore that defense counsel had it all.
BELLEVILLE – Robert Sneed of Mascoutah, felony suspect in using a badge to gain sexual pleasure, no longer works for St. Clair County Sheriff Rick Watson.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert Haida said at a hearing on Sept. 15 that he would order Sheriff Rick Watson to stop leaks from the investigation of the murder of Carl Silas.
Witnesses to the murder of Carl Silas, who at first accused David Fields of shooting him, shifted the blame to a stranger four hours later, according to reports of St. Clair County sheriff’s deputies.
