Loyola’s lawsuit says patient was injured at Stone Park station
Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
By STEVE PATTERSON
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO, Ill. — When Jimmy Sanders was brought to Loyola University Medical Center, he was bloodied and had numerous broken bones in his face and a collapsed lung.
According to a lawsuit recently filed in Cook County Circuit Court, the homeless 42-year-old suffered those injuries while in the custody of Stone Park police.
Loyola filed suit against the police department in an effort to have Sanders’ medical bills paid.
The lawsuit doesn’t say how Sanders suffered so many injuries, including internal bleeding, but does note that he spent a month recovering in that hospital.
Records also show that a day after Sanders was released from the hospital, the misdemeanor charges against him were dropped.
Sanders could not be located, while Stone Park Mayor Beniamino Mazzulla and Chief Joe Capece did not return calls.
But village attorney Michael Cainkar said the lawsuit makes no claims about excessive force and is simply about who is going to pay the bill — the village or county.
Cook County taxpayers would bear responsibility for Sanders’ medical care if the village can prove the injuries happened after he was in custody.
The lawsuit says Sanders was “an arrestee in the custody of the Stone Park Police Department” when the injuries happened and seeks $143,411 for his care.
NO PRIOR ARRESTS
Sanders, who records show has no prior arrests, was charged with resisting arrest, assault and battery for allegedly hitting and spitting at officers during an October 2004 incident along Mannheim Road.
Police reports show police initially approached him for threatening a man with a knife.
Cainkar said Sanders was also intoxicated and combative and that “he’s not filed any lawsuits against us for excessive force.”
The police department has a long history of mob ties and links to video gambling, with multiple officers indicted in recent years, though none on brutality charges.