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.
His counsel Chet Kelly of Belleville alleged reckless, willful and wanton conduct.
Kelly claims Watson has received complaints about deputies violating pursuit policies and acting overzealously.
He claimed Tracy had conduct and disciplinary problems that posed a pervasive and unreasonable risk of constitutional injury to citizens like Misselhorn.
He claimed Misselhorn suffered injuries to his head, neck, back, and leg.
Misselhorn also sued Manuel Bijarro Jr. of Shiloh as driver of the 1995 Saturn that hit him, and Bradley Cohlman of South Roxana as its owner.
According to the complaint, the pursuit started while Tracy conducted surveillance at 121 S. 17th Street in Swansea last May 13.
Kelly wrote that Tracy witnessed a violation and tried to stop the Saturn.
Bijarro allegedly failed to stop and Tracy engaged him in pursuit on South 17th toward North Belt West. South 17th is a two lane residential area with numerous stop signs.
Misselhorn was heading east on North Belt West and proceeded through a green light at 17th when Bijarro proceeded through the red.
Kelly alleges that Tracy disobeyed policies, procedures, and good police practices, and failed to regard other traffic while pursuing Bijarro at a high rate of speed.
He claims Watson was responsible for Tracy’s training, instruction, supervision, discipline and control.
He claims Watson knew or should have known Tracy’s conduct, as displayed toward Misselhorn, was likely to occur.
He claims Saturn owner Cohlman knew or should have known Bijarro had an outstanding warrant when he allowed Bijarro to operate the car.
He claims Cohlman knew or should have known Bijarro often showed reckless disregard for the law.
Gregory Shevlin of Bruce Cook’s firm in Belleville also represents Misselhorn.
U.S. Seventh Circuit appellate judges tackled this touchy topic on May 12.
They reversed Northern Indiana District Judge James Moody, who dismissed a wrongful death suit against South Bend and officer Justin Gorny.
Circuit Judge Diane Wood wrote, “An officer who is not responding to an emergency can act so recklessly that a trier of fact would be entitled to find subjective knowledge of an unjustifiable risk to human life and conscious disregard of that risk.”
She found the estate of Erica Flores plausibly alleged that South Bend acted with deliberate indifference by failing to address the known recklessness of its police and Gorny in particular.
“The city knew that its officers routinely drove over 50 miles per hour, but it took no steps to prevent this behavior,” she wrote.