Oct. 31--Three years after a Lake County Jail inmate's neck was broken in a scuffle with guards, two former correctional officers have been indicted by a grand jury on official misconduct charges for their involvement, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran announced.
The inmate, Eugene Gruber, 51, was paralyzed by the injury and died a few months later in a rehabilitation hospital. Jail surveillance video obtained by the Tribune showed guards pulling him around the jail with his legs dragging on the ground, and records indicated that jail staff members denied him medical attention for hours, despite his complaints that he could not move his legs.
The indicted officers, Rodney Holmes and Robert Schlesser, were among the three correctional officers who were fired by the sheriff as a result of a county-commissioned investigation, though the men's dismissals occurred more than 21/2 years after Gruber was injured.
Gruber, who was intoxicated and belligerent when he was brought into the jail on Oct. 31, 2011, was pepper-sprayed after refusing to cooperate with officers trying to book him. He was then brought into a shower stall to wash out his eyes but continued to resist as officers struggled to change him out of his wet clothes. An officer used what investigators called a "takedown" maneuver on Gruber, according to county records.
In May, when the firings were announced, along with disciplinary action against seven other jail employees, Undersheriff Ray Rose called the takedown move appropriate but said Gruber was injured because of his resistance.
Before Gruber's death, the Lake County state's attorney's office, under the leadership of Michael Waller, investigated the incident but determined no criminal charges were warranted.
But Curran hired an outside lawyer to conduct his own probe and sent those findings back to the state's attorney's office, now under the leadership of Michael Nerheim, and requested a criminal review. Nerheim's office declined, citing a possible conflict of interest, and the Illinois state's attorney appellate prosecutor's office eventually handled the case and recommended the charges, according to a news release issued by Curran.
The indictment stated that the officers recklessly committed official misconduct by "failing to refer Gruber ... to a health care professional as soon as possible after he showed signs of or reported unusual physical distress," a duty which is required by law.
Schlesser and Holmes were not involved in the altercation or takedown that broke Gruber's neck, prosecutors said. But they knew Gruber had complained that he couldn't move, and they dragged him about 30 feet to help prop him up for a mug shot long after he was paralyzed, prosecutor Chuck Zalar said.
Undersheriff Ray Rose and the prosecutors denied that politics played any role in the timing of the charges just before Curran seeks re-election Tuesday. He said the sheriff's office requested another review of the case in May, and these charges had to be filed by Friday because of a three-year statute of limitations.
The investigation by the appellate prosecutor is ongoing and "potentially there could be other indictments coming," Rose said.
"The sheriff's office is doing what it should be doing," said Rose, adding that the video of Gruber in jail gave him a "knot" in his stomach. "This conduct is not acceptable." Rose did not work for the sheriff at the time.
Gruber's cousin Charles Gruber, a former police chief for Elgin and South Barrington, investigates police misconduct for the U.S. Department of Justice. He welcomed the news but said additional charges should be filed and more done at all police departments to prevent similar episodes.
"I feel good that Lake County has recognized its responsibility for the failures and are taking steps to fix it," he said. "I'm hopeful this is just a start."
Thursday morning, both ex-officers appeared in court and were released on their own recognizance. Neither man responded when asked for comment after the hearing.
Their attorney, Douglas Roberts, said the timing of the charges was "awkward, to say the least."
The county settled a civil lawsuit brought by Gruber's family for nearly $2 million.
lblack@tribune.com
rmcoppin@tribune.com
