BENTON – In a span of nearly ten years, ten Franklin County inmates sued jail administrator Chet Shaffer prior to his arrest last August on a charge of raping Felicia Hill of Williamson County.
Three plaintiffs who obtained assistance of counsel reached settlement agreements with Franklin County, and a fourth plaintiff settled without a lawyer.
And in a case that went to trial in 2011, former U.S. district judge Patrick Murphy entered judgment on a jury verdict in Shaffer’s favor.
Murphy now brings allegations against Shaffer as Felicia Hill’s counsel in a suit she filed at district court on June 24.
Murphy wrote that while on duty, “Chet L. Shaffer raped the plaintiff while she was handcuffed and shackled.”
Hill seeks $5 million.
Shaffer faces criminal charges of aggravated sexual assault and official misconduct.
Attorney Joseph Bleyer of Marion, who lost a race for Fifth District appellate judge in 2016, represented Shaffer in previous cases.
Some who sued Shaffer picked up lawyers along the way but only plaintiff Michael Lampley started out with one.
Attorney Michael Gras, in his former post at Christopher Cueto’s firm in Belleville, sued sheriff Donald Jones and Shaffer for Lampley in 2016.
Gras claimed Lampley’s bowel ruptured in 2014, because defendants ignored his dietary restrictions.
He named 18 other officers as defendants, and a doctor and a nurse, alleging their actions constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
According to his suit, Lampley was taken to a hospital for surgery and a colostomy bag. No one at the jail could replace the bag, and the jail called his wife to come and change it.
Lampley had multiple surgeries including removal of a large portion of his intestine.
County counsel Bleyer answered that Lampley didn’t file the complaint within a statute of limitations.
He asserted qualified immunity from tort damages and complete immunity from punitive damages.
In 2018, a month before trial, Lampley dismissed all defendants and settled with Franklin County.
In another case that started in 2016, Jimmy Leach sued Shaffer and others.
He claimed flashbacks started after 24 hours off his meds and he had three or more seizures after still being refused his meds. He alleged that officers tried to help him by getting Shaffer to check on him, and that Shaffer refused treatment “while I was laying in my own urine.”
He sought $2.8 million.
Bleyer answered, “Plaintiff was not in need of medical attention as a result of the occurrence as set forth in the plaintiff’s complaint.”
Leach requested counsel, and Magistrate Judge Reona Daly appointed Neal Settergren of St. Louis.
Settergren amended the complaint in 2018, to add a claim that Shaffer failed to preserve video surveillance and medical records.
“Shaffer deprived plaintiff of evidence within his control that would have demonstrated the illegal and unconstitutional suffering he endured,” Settergren wrote.
Shaffer moved to dismiss the complaint, and Daly denied the motion last year.
“A jury could reasonably find that Shaffer’s failure to provide medical treatment or evaluation prior to March 21, 2016, despite being aware of his incoherent state, was in purposeful and reckless disregard to plaintiff’s medical condition,” Daly wrote.
Last September, 19 days before trial, the parties settled.
Plaintiff Dwayne Middleton achieved settlement after picking up four lawyers on a claim he filed against Shaffer and others in 2017.
He claimed they refused him medication for Tourette’s syndrome.
“As a result of not being able to medicate my disorder I fell in the shower and broke my nose and cut my left eyelid open,” Middleton alleged.
He claimed a nurse said she didn’t have to treat him if she didn’t want to.
He claimed he wrote a grievance and Shaffer tore it up in his face.
“I was told that I will receive no medical attention for my disorder cause Franklin County doesn’t have the money to treat me,” he wrote.
He claimed they shackled him and he fell on the courthouse stairs. He claimed he asked for medical attention and was told to suck it up and get over it.
Bleyer answered by asserting a statute of limitations and claiming defendants were not deliberately indifferent to Middleton’s condition.
Middleton asked for counsel, and Daly assigned attorney Kevin Schneider of Chicago.
Roderick Dunne, Jocelyn Cornblat, and Linda Carwile of Chicago entered with him.
In December 2018, Carwile moved to compel responses to discovery requests.
Daly held a hearing and wrote, “Attorney Bleyer reported to the court he owes discovery responses to counsel for plaintiff.”
Last August, four months before trial, Middleton substituted Franklin County as defendant and the parties settled.
Plaintiff Dustin Corey achieved settlement without counsel in a suit he filed against sheriff Jones, Shaffer, a nurse and a doctor in 2018.
He claimed video cameras in the nurse’s examination room violated due process, his right against cruel and unusual punishment, and equal protection.
He claimed Shaffer threatened him not to pursue the claim.
He sought $5 million.
Bleyer answered by asserting a statute of limitations, immunity, and failure to comply with the grievance procedure.
The parties settled last year.
The case that Murphy brought to trial started in 2011, when Brian Lacey sued Shaffer and two other officers.
He claimed an inmate made threats to officers on duty that he would physically assault inmates if they didn’t let him out.
He wrote that the inmate was federal, “being housed with state inmates!”
He wrote that he asked for transfer out of the jail and Shaffer said, “Do whatever you gotta do. You ain’t getting moved.”
He wrote that the inmate punched the left side of his face and chipped two teeth.
He asked for $250,000 in compensatory, punitive, and progressive damages.
Bleyer pleaded immunity and denied “any indication of any incident that would occur in which these defendants would have a duty to protect the plaintiff.”
Attorney Richard Whitney of Carbondale entered an appearance for Lacey.
For trial in 2013, he tendered a jury instruction about “missing evidence” in the form of letters Lacey wrote to Shaffer.
Bleyer moved to exclude the topic, denying that Shaffer received letters.
Murphy allowed testimony about it but that didn’t sway the jury.
Murphy retired later that year and returned to private practice.
His complaint for Hill claimed Shaffer violated her right to liberty and she sustained mental, emotional, and physical pain.
Murphy wrote that she was incarcerated for about a month for possession of Xanax, “a drug for which she had a lawful prescription.”
He wrote that before Shaffer raped her, she submitted requests to obtain review of the legality of her confinement.
He wrote that Shaffer intentionally intercepted her requests and did so for the purpose of keeping her in jail.
He claimed Shaffer observed her while planning to create an opportunity.
He wrote that the county dismissed the Xanax charges.
In another pending case, Clinton Crabtree Jr. alleges cruel and unusual punishment and excessive force.
He sued Shaffer and others in May, claiming they dragged him out of a squad car to an isolation cell and forcibly threw him into the wall hurting his left shoulder.
Crabtree said he yelled and banged on the door and, “Lt. Chet Shaffer came in and tried to shoot me with a taser but the taser did not work.
“Lt. Chet Shaffer hit me in the mouth real hard with the taser causing my tooth to come through my top lip and broke one of my teeth in half.”
He claimed an officer stated Shaffer gave strict orders to move him to B block.
“That is classified as a gang block, I am not a gang member,” Crabtree alleged.
In five minutes, he wrote, “Five inmates ran in my cell and started beating me up., kicking me, hitting me in the face, arms, stomach, and jaw.”
He wrote that he reached the panic button and the officer “opened the door and stated that didn’t take long.”
He stated that he tore two blank pieces of paper from his Bible and wrote a grievance and a medical request; he gave them to an officer and in about 30 minutes Shaffer opened the door wadded them up and threw them in the trash.
He wrote that Shaffer said, “I run this place. You get nothing, see.”
He wrote that a dentist at Menard told him he would have to pull two teeth on each side of the broken tooth to remove the broken tooth surgically.
Five suits produced no apparent benefit for plaintiffs.
In 2014, Jason Kelley claimed he slept on a cold floor for three months.
The state paroled him and when that came to the attention of former district judge Michael Reagan, he gave Kelley 28 days to change his address.
Kelley didn’t act and Reagan dismissed the suit.
In 2016, James Osborne claimed Jones, Shaffer and others failed to treat his high blood pressure.
He claimed he was told the county didn’t have the money to pay for treatment.
Gilbert dismissed the complaint and granted leave to amend it.
Osborne didn’t amend it, and Gilbert dismissed it.
Brian Jennings sued Shaffer and others in 2017, claiming inmates he had problems with jumped him and beat him.
He claimed he asked to be taken to a hospital and Shaffer told him to tough it up.
He asked for counsel and Magistrate Judge Stephen Williams denied it, finding his filings well written and easy to understand.
Jennings gained release and needed to pay a $350 filing fee or apply for waiver, but he did neither and Gilbert dismissed the suit.
Kyle Carcione sued Jones and Shaffer in 2017, and Gilbert distilled the suit to a claim that Shaffer placed him in segregation in retaliation for filing grievances.
Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty granted summary judgment to Jones and Shaffer last year, finding Shaffer didn’t segregate Carcione for punitive purposes.
Bradley Cornille sued Jones and Shaffer in 2018, for an injunction granting two visits with his children per week.
“Children are too young to have a true positive visit through video and only contact will be adequate,” he wrote.
Last December, Bleyer served notice that Cornille’s address changed to Menard.
Days later, Bleyer advised Gilbert that Cornille no longer wished to pursue the suit.