BENTON - Menard penitentiary resident De’Angelo Higgs and East St. Louis settled an excessive force claim against former police officer Leland Cherry on Sept. 30.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Reona Daly posted notice of the agreement after presiding over a conference that lasted two and a half hours.
Higgs must spend any proceeds from prison because he and two other men who tried to shoot each other in 2021 hit six adults and paralyzed a child.
He has served two years on the first of seven sentences for 26 years, 182 years in all.
Cherry resigned from East St. Louis police and failed to cooperate with the city’s counsel from the firm of Chatham and Baricevic in Belleville.
They tried to drop him as a client in May but Daly didn’t allow it.
Attorneys Grey Chatham Jr. and Alvin Paulson represented Cherry at the settlement conference.
Attorneys Thomas Smith and Aaron Sherman of Fox Smith in St. Louis represented Higgs.
He filed the complaint from St. Clair County jail in the last week of 2020.
“I was attempting to flee on foot out of fear of law enforcement,” he wrote.
He claimed Cherry’s cruiser almost ran him over at 16th and Cleveland and he jumped, resulting in the back door and quarter panel on the driver’s side striking him.
“I landed on my back nearly unconscious,” he wrote.
He said he rolled to his belly and clasped his hands behind his back.
He claimed a St. Louis officer handcuffed him and Cherry placed him in a choke hold.
He claimed Cherry punched his eyes, nose and forehead more than 50 times.
He claimed Cherry yelled to stop resisting while continuing to punch him.
He claimed Cherry released him “and someone snatched my limp body from the ground.”
He claimed he couldn’t see and he leaked blood but they took him to the police station.
He claimed they placed him in a cell with no mattress and he passed out on concrete.
He claimed a desk sergeant tapped on his door to see movement and a female said, “How long has he been down there like this?”
He claimed a male said five or six hours and the female said, “Get him out of there.”
He claimed she said, “Bring me the keys.”
He claimed a doctor at St. Louis University diagnosed severe concussions, broken nose, fractured eye socket and two contusions to the back of his skull.
He claimed his eyes still blurred and burned and pings of light happened all day with a continuous headache.
He requested appointment of counsel.
In September 2021, Senior District Judge Phil Gilbert ruled that Higgs’s complaint survived the screening process that applies to prisoner claims.
He denied counsel without prejudice.
Higgs chose that moment to fire his weapon wildly outside a store in East St. Louis.
In October 2021, he notified Gilbert that St. Clair County released him in May but he was detained in an unrelated case.
Attorney John Baricevic answered the complaint for the city in January 2022, claiming Cherry’s actions were necessary in self defense.
He denied that Higgs didn’t resist arrest, that Cherry punched him 50 times, or that he kept him in a choke hold.
Higgs moved again for appointment of counsel and Gilbert denied it without prejudice.
In May 2022, the court clerk assigned the case to Daly.
Chatham moved for summary judgment in June 2022, stating Cherry pursued a vehicle that witnesses had seen at a robbery.
He claimed Higgs drove 70 miles an hour on city streets and crossed to Missouri where police chased him and he returned to East St. Louis.
He claimed Higgs hit a pole, exited the vehicle and ran.
He claimed Higgs ran into the cruiser door.
He claimed police found evidence from robberies in the vehicle.
Daly denied summary judgment, finding East St. Louis didn’t give Higgs notice or an opportunity to conduct discovery.
Higgs moved for counsel again In June 2023 and Daly granted it, finding Higgs and his family tried to obtain counsel.
She found he didn’t understand simple directives even after the court provided some guidance.
This February she set trial to start Sept. 24.
Chatham and Baricevic moved to withdraw in April, stating Cherry resigned and they tried for months to contact him but couldn’t.
Daly set a hearing on May 7 and on May 6 Sherman moved for sanctions on Cherry.
He claimed discovery responses were due last November and a subpoena response was due in November but Higgs received no responses to either.
He claimed discovery responses, document production and police records were necessary in order to depose Cherry.
He claimed as the deposition date approached Cherry had not responded to interrogatories or requests for documents nor had the city responded to a subpoena for records.
He claimed the deposition had to be postponed.
He claimed city counsel stated in March that they hadn’t communicated with Cherry and he wouldn’t cooperate.
He claimed Higgs served a deposition notice on Cherry for March 26 and Cherry didn’t appear.
“Cherry’s utter lack of explanation and lack of any cooperation or communication at all shows his failure to appear was willful and in bad faith,” Sherman wrote.
Cherry appeared by video for the hearing on withdrawal of Chatham and Baricevic a day later.
Alvin Paulson withdrew the firm’s motion.
In August, Higgs and the city moved to continue the trial.
They stated Cherry made an inadvertent miscommunication about his address.
They stated he completed his discovery responses and sat for deposition in June.
“Continuance will result in a greater chance of settlement and thus of avoiding unnecessary burden on the court and jurors,” they wrote.
Daly set a settlement conference and postponed trial to November.
After the conference succeeded she gave Higgs and the city 60 days to finalize documents.