BENTON - Clarice Hilliard of Chicago, whose son Clifton Lovett of Alton died after nine hours in a Venice police lockup, settled her wrongful death suit against the city on Nov. 21.
Former federal judge Patrick Murphy of Marion, who mediated with Hilliard and the city, reported a successful result to Senior U.S. District Judge Phil Gilbert.
Murphy previously mediated without success on Oct. 5.
Venice police arrested Lovett around 6 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2018.
They sent a passenger to a hospital and took Lovett to the lockup.
Someone found him unresponsive at 3 a.m., and an emergency crew arrived too late.
St. Clair County grand jurors indicted Deborah Haynes on a felony charge of official misconduct in May 2018, finding she failed to regularly check on the welfare of prisoners.
Chicago lawyers James Karamanis and Kenneth Nazarian sued the city and Haynes in 2019.
They claimed Haynes did not properly ensure that Lovett was safe in his cell, failed to recognize his condition and failed to check on him.
They also claimed allowing him to remain without supervision and monitoring was objectively unreasonable and posed a substantial risk of serious harm.
They alleged wrongful death, unreasonable conditions of confinement in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and a pattern or practice of neglecting persons in custody.
In November 2020, State’s Attorney Tom Haine decided not to prosecute Haynes.
In December 2020, Gilbert found the complaint threadbare and dismissed it without prejudice.
Gilbert found he must take all factual allegations as true for purposes of a motion to dismiss, but he wasn’t bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation.
He also found that even if Haynes failed to monitor Lovett, the complaint didn’t allege any facts about his condition suggesting her conduct was unreasonable under the circumstances.
Karamanis and Nazarian amended the complaint to add facts about Lovett’s condition and allege the police followed a pattern or practice of neglecting persons in custody.
They claimed police recognized and believed Lovett and his passenger were under the influence of drugs.
They added that an ambulance transported the passenger to a hospital for a suspected overdose.
“Despite Lovett also exhibiting signs of drug use and his passenger’s suspected overdose, Venice police did not transport Lovett to the hospital,” he wrote.
They claimed Haynes knew he exhibited symptoms of overdose in the cell and didn’t review a camera covering his cell or contact a doctor.
They claimed she didn’t check on him from 6:07 p.m. to 2:55 a.m.
They added that if Lovett had been provided timely medical attention he would not have died.
The city and Haynes moved to dismiss the amended complaint.
Gilbert dismissed Haynes as a redundant defendant, finding Hilliard could sue the city directly.
He dismissed the pattern and practice claim against the city, finding the sole supporting fact was Lovett’s death.
“In other words, Hilliard merely assumes that this conduct has occurred before,” he wrote.
The wrongful death claim remained; and last year, Gilbert set trial to begin next February.
This September, three days before their discovery deadline, Hilliard and the city asked Gilbert to extend it to Jan. 22.
They stated they anticipated seven to ten depositions and completion of expert discovery.
They stated they set mediation on Oct. 5 and believed they completed sufficient discovery to proceed with it.
They also asked Gilbert to delay trial from February to May, and he granted both requests.
When mediation failed, the parties stated they would proceed with discovery.
The docket didn’t indicate that a second mediation would occur; but it did, and it worked.
Gilbert gave the parties 60 days to finalize the settlement.
Peter Dunne and Robert Plunkert of St. Louis represented Venice.