Girlfriend of Belleville man charged with attempted murder says deputies were aggressors
.jpg "A detention hearing was conducted Tuesday for a Belleville man charged with attempted murder.")
A St. Clair County judge detained a Belleville man accused of grabbing a gun from a sheriff’s deputy’s holster and firing it during a confrontation with deputies who went to the man’s home with a DCFS investigator for a wellness check on a child last week.
An attorney and the girlfriend of Chase A. Powers, meanwhile, offer a different version of what led to his arrest. They say the deputies didn’t identify themselves as law enforcement officers and that it was their aggression that resulted in the physical confrontation.
Powers, 28, of the 700 block of South 15th Street, has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery with great bodily harm of a police officer, disarming a police officer, felon in possession of a weapon, and aggravated battery of a police officer. He was ordered by St. Clair County Associate Judge Sara L. Rice Tuesday to remain in the county jail before his trial.
“I don’t think they’re going to hold up,” Powers’s defense attorney, Dennis Hatch, said of the charges during Tuesday’s hearing.
No one was struck by the gunshot on Thursday afternoon. Authorities, however, said two deputies from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department were injured during the struggle with Powers, including one who suffered a dislocated shoulder. They were both released from a hospital.
Hatch, a retired judge, told Rice during a detention hearing that Powers needs medical attention for his injuries, which include bruises.
Powers “became irate” and told the deputies who responded to his home that he had a gun and would shoot them, St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Levi Carwile said in arguing for Powers’ detention. Powers also said he would “let the dogs” go after the deputies, Carwile said.
A deputy’s gun was taken when Powers “resisted” arrest, Carwile said. “Thankfully” the shot that was fired in the direction of a deputy didn’t hit anyone, Carwile said.
Hatch told Rice that Powers should be released before his trial because the deputies didn’t identify themselves as police officers and they didn’t take “due diligence” before the confrontation escalated. When the deputies were told that the child in question was not in the home, they should have verified that with the adult who was with the child in another home, Hatch said.
“They knew from the start the child wasn’t there,” Hatch said.
Carwile told Rice that people “lie” to police all the time and the deputies needed to verify the child wasn’t there.
Hatch said DCFS became involved after the child in question “made statements” and at one point had been taken to the Belleville Police Department. One of the issues involved the child using a cellphone and that it had been taken away because he was “staying up all night” using it, Hatch said.
Powers works for a local plumbing company and earns $30 an hour, according to testimony by his employer Joseph Delozier. Under questioning by Hatch, Delozier indicated that if Powers is detained, he would lose his job and the healthcare insurance he has for his family.
The sheriff’s department requested Illinois State Police investigate the shooting since sheriff’s deputies were involved. St. Clair County Sheriff Rick Watson said this is protocol anytime an officer’s weapon is discharged.
In announcing her ruling, Rice noted Powers previously was convicted of aggravated discharge of a firearm and received a nine-year prison sentence in 2014.
Deputies criticized
Alyssa Boyer, who is Powers’ girlfriend, was home at the time the deputies arrived with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigator. In an interview with the Belleville News-Democrat, Boyer said the child had been at the police station earlier in the week as part of a “custody” dispute.
She also said that the deputies “beat” Powers.
“When they took him off of the property, his face was bleeding,” Boyer said. “His mouth was full of blood. His face was just swollen. He was beat to a pulp. He was hurt badly.”
“They refused to get off the property,” Boyer said. “My boyfriend got angry at that. They told him he was under arrest. They grabbed him and started to try to arrest him. He tried to fight back. We didn’t know they were police. They didn’t announce themselves that they were police. To us, they looked like two men with guns on the porch.”
Boyer, who criticized the sheriff’s deputies for forcing her to walk to a patrol car while she was wearing light clothing and wasn’t wearing shoes on a bitterly cold day, said she felt compelled to tell her story because, “I feel like he was treated wrongly. They didn’t follow any of the rules they should have, especially with announcing themselves. It was a scary situation.
“They are portraying it all wrong. They were the aggressors, not him.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 9:54 AM.
