Personal Injury Law

Injury Lawsuit for Milwaukee Sheriff After Former Deputy Jailed for Shooting

By Michael

A personal injury lawsuit has been filed against a Wisconsin country sheriff after a former deputy was convicted of shooting his then-girlfriend and a 12-year-old girl in 2008.

The suit, filed Feb. 5, claims that Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and two of his higher ranking staff members conspired to keep the deputy on staff after the shooting.

The suit goes on to allege that Clarke acted negligently by letting the former deputy carry a department weapon after knowing about past domestic violence cases in which he was involved, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Former Milwaukee County Sheriff?s Deputy Thomas D. Hutchins, 41, is now serving a 20-year sentence after he pleaded no contest to two counts of intentional first-degree reckless injury and one count of endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon.

On Dec. 15, 2008, Hutchins became upset with his former girlfriend after she disciplined their child, and he struck her face while they were arguing, the Journal Sentinel reported. The woman told Hutchins to leave and started to call 911 when he remained in the house.

Hutchins pulled the phone out of the wall and aimed his department-issued handgun at her before saying, ?You take my job, I?ll take your life,? according to the Journal Sentinel. Hutchins said the woman struck him in the head with a candlestick and he shot his gun to protect himself.

A mug shot of Hutchins taken after the arrest shows a bloody wound on his forehead and bandages around his entire head.

Hutchins then fired his gun twice, hitting the woman in the face.

She ran out from the house to a neighbor?s home and was let in, but Hutchins continued firing through the walls. Bullets hit a 12-year-old girl three times in her thigh and grazed her right hand, the Journal Sentinel reported.

During Hutchins? criminal trial, the family whose house Hutchins shot his gun into said they found bullet shells in their Christmas presents a few weeks after the incident.

The suit seeks damages for the woman and girl who were shot, and also several children who were present for Hutchins? eruption. The suit said witnesses to the incident ?have and will likely continue to suffer repeated and severe bouts of mental anguish and psychological repercussions.?

The suit was logged as ?Jane Doe vs. defendant? without any addresses listed for the woman and children.

Personal injury Attorney Robert Stack, who is representing the plaintiffs, told the Journal Sentinel that the plaintiffs are ?rather nervous, rather scared.? Stack also said he was not aware if anyone had been threatened.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).