Lawsuit alleging excessive force by ESL police detective dismissed – for now
A man who filed a federal lawsuit in 2023 alleging excessive force by an East St. Louis police detective asked a judge to dismiss the case to give the parties — including the city and its police chief — time to reach a settlement, and the judge granted his request.
The plaintiff, Dorian Hendricks, could refile the complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois if settlement talks fail, according to his attorney, Steven Fluhr.
“It’s in a holding pattern at this point,” Fluhr said. “It’s either going to settle, or it’s going to be refiled.”
Hendricks argued that Detective Jason Hicks, who was working security at Da Beno Nite Club in East St. Louis while on duty, used excessive force in 2022, when he allegedly chased him in his vehicle and shot him in the leg after a fight in the bar.
Besides Hicks, the other defendants included the East St. Louis Police Department, Police Chief Kendall Perry, Assistant Police Chief Nick Mueller and the city of East St. Louis.
“(Hendricks) has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial past and future damages, both compensatory and general, including but not limited to medical bills, loss of income, severe emotional distress, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, disfigurement, and physical pain,” the complaint stated.
Hendricks’ attorneys filed the motion to dismiss by stipulation of all parties on Feb. 10, and U.S. District Court Senior Judge J. Phil Gilbert granted it the following day, dismissing the case without prejudice.
Chief Perry declined to comment, except to say that he and other officials only recently gave depositions in the case.
“I will (comment), but just not at this time,” he said.
Hendricks filed the lawsuit on Oct. 10, 2023. The following January, he asked for a $1.5 million default judgment after the defendants failed to answer. Magistrate Judge Reona J. Daly recommended that the city of East St. Louis be ordered to pay $825,035 in damages.
The defendants objected to the judgment, stating that they had failed to answer the complaint because they didn’t receive summonses or even know that they were being sued.
Longtime process server Jim Mourney testified at a hearing that he served the summonses, giving those for Perry, Mueller and Hicks to a man at the police department who identified himself as the chief, answered to Perry’s name and gave his correct age.
Perry maintained that the man wasn’t him and provided evidence that he had taken the day off for a speaking engagement elsewhere.
Mourney also testified that he served a summons to the city of East St. Louis by giving it to City Manager Robert Betts’ executive assistant, following common practice. Betts maintained that the woman, a relatively new employee, didn’t pass it on to him.
Gilbert essentially accepted the defendants’ word and rejected Daly’s recommendation for a default judgment, but he denied the city’s request to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.
“The Defendants may have been neglectful, but mere neglect is insufficient (to impose a default judgment) — especially in cases such as this one with grave accusations of police misconduct and over one million dollars in damages at controversy,” Gilbert wrote in his order.
In the complaint, Hendricks alleged that Hicks violated his Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure by using excessive force.
It gave the following timeline for Oct. 25, 2022:
- Hendricks and his brother went to Da Beno Nite Club at 6830 State St. in East St. Louis with friends.
- A fight broke out between people that Hendricks had just met.
- Those people “jumped” Hendricks’ brother, and Hendricks was hit on the head a couple of times.
- The brothers left the nightclub and drove away as the people involved in the fight had guns drawn.
- Detective Hicks, who was working security at Da Beno while on duty with the police department, followed the brothers down a dead-end street in an unmarked police vehicle.
- Hicks jumped out of the vehicle without identifying himself as a police officer and started shooting at the vehicle Hendricks was driving.
- Hicks continued shooting as Hendricks reversed his vehicle and drove back out, passing Hicks.
- Hendricks was shot in the leg, causing “serious wounds” and prompting him to pull over and get in the back seat of his vehicle.
- Hendricks crossed into Missouri, where his parents took him to the hospital for treatment.
The complaint stated that Hendricks suffered permanent injury, losing partial use of his left leg, due to “unnecessary, unreasonable, unlawful and unjustified” actions by Hicks.
The complaint listed four counts, including excessive force by Hicks, Monell liability of the police department and city, intentional infliction of emotional distress and battery.
Regarding Chief Perry and Assistant Chief Mueller, the complaint argued that they had shown a pattern of tolerating violence and excessive force by police officers and covering it up by charging local residents with crimes.
The complaint also alleged that Perry and Mueller had been allowing Hicks to work security at Da Beno while on duty with the police department, despite their own policies against it.
