BENTON – Attorney general Kwame Raoul pulled three lawyers off a prison brutality case in three months and replaced them with fresh lawyers as a March 27 trial date approached.
Raoul’s assistants Victoria Fuller and Megan Ditzler will represent five defendants against plaintiff Cristian Ramos of Melrose Park, who will represent himself.
Randall Grady of Clayton, Missouri, will appear as standby counsel for Ramos by appointment of U. S. District Judge Staci Yandle.
Ramos seeks damages over events at Pinckneyville correctional center in 2019.
He claims sergeant Vincent Bowling and officers Federico Fernandez and Brett Damron used excessive force.
He claims officers Jonathan Hamburger and Sierra Tate failed to intervene.
Raoul initially assigned Areda Johnson.
He assigned Rachel Schwarzlose in 2021 and Christine McClimans last year.
Johnson and Schwarzlose withdrew in January, and Raoul assigned Victoria Fuller and Megan Ditzler to replace them.
McClimans withdrew a week before trial.
Ramos sought $95,000 in his complaint, but Yandle wrote in a pretrial order that he seeks $60,000.
His complaint also requested transfer, which he promptly received.
He notified the court of his current address last August.
Yandle wrote that trial would take two days.