{"id":690,"date":"2014-03-10T15:49:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T15:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/?p=690"},"modified":"2014-03-10T19:09:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T19:09:00","slug":"jury-awards-mass-murderer-451000-in-personal-injury-lawsuit-against-prison-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/jury-awards-mass-murderer-451000-in-personal-injury-lawsuit-against-prison-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury Awards Mass Murderer $451,000 in Personal Injury Lawsuit Against Prison Guard."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A jury at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/nation\/index.ssf\/2014\/03\/convicted_killer_wins_451000_l.html\">found in favor of an inmate who claimed that he was beaten by a prison guard, awarding him $451,000 in monetary compensation for his injuries.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H81cGFjrG2w\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"400\" height=\"280\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The jury\u00a0held that James Degorski, who had his cheekbone and eye socket broken in 2002, after being punched by a prison guard, had his civil rights violated in the attack.<\/strong>\u00a0 Degorski is serving a prison sentence for killing seven people in 1993 during a robbery at Brown&#8217;s Chicken and Pasta in Chicago.\u00a0 <strong>Degorski and an accomplice shot and stabbed the seven victims, including the restaurant&#8217;s two owners and five other employees, and left their bodies in a walk-in freezer.<\/strong>\u00a0 Degorski and his friend made away with less than $2,000.\u00a0 The crime went unsolved until 2002, when Degorski was arrested and convicted of the murders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shortly after his arrest, Degorski became involved in\u00a0an altercation with Sheriff&#8217;s Deputy Thomas Wilson, a prison guard at the Cook County Jail. The fight left\u00a0Degorski badly beaten and\u00a0resulted in\u00a0his civil rights lawsuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>In the lawsuit, Degorski named as defendants Deputy Wilson and Cook County, who were charged\u00a0by the jury award with paying $226,000 in punitive damages and $225,000 in compensatory damages<\/strong>.\u00a0 Following the trial, Attorney Jennifer Bonjean, who represented Degorski, thanked the jury for \u201cput[ing] aside emotions and say[ing] we are all entitled to our civil rights.\u201d<strong>\u00a0 The defendants, however, have complained that the judge in the case wrongly prevented them from telling jurors the details of the murders committed by Degorski.<\/strong>\u00a0 The defendants argued that these details were important\u00a0in understanding Degorski&#8217;s violent nature, but the judge apparently determined that these details would be unfairly prejudicial to Degorski.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Both Mr. Wilson and Cook County have expressed a desire to appeal the jury award.\u00a0 In addition, officials at the Menard Correctional Center, where Degorski is currently an inmate, may seek to seize Degorski&#8217;s award to pay for the cost of his imprisonment, which totals around $20,000 per year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Are you or your loved one the victim of a Massachusetts accident?\u00a0 If so, the highly experienced <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\">Boston, MA lawyers<\/a> at our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonmawrongfuldeathlawyer.com\/boston-wrongful-death-lawyer-our-firm.php\">full service Boston, MA law office<\/a> can help.\u00a0 Please call<strong> 617-787-3700 today<\/strong> to speak with one of our <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-personal-injury-information-lawyers-attorneys.php\">Boston, MA personal injury lawyers<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonmawrongfuldeathlawyer.com\/\">Boston, MA wrongful death lawyers<\/a>.\u00a0 You can also reach our <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-personal-injury-types-lawyers-attorneys.php\">Massachusetts personal injury lawyers<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonmawrongfuldeathlawyer.com\/\">Boston, Massachusetts wrongful death accident attorneys<\/a> by email at <strong>info@gilhoylaw.com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t wait to get the <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-personal-injury-damages.php\">personal injury damages<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-personal-injury-damages-wrongful-death.php\">wrongful death damages<\/a> you deserve.\u00a0 Call our <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-about-gil-hoy-lawyers-attorneys.php\">Boston, MA law firm<\/a>, <strong>24 hours a day, 7 days a week,<\/strong> at <strong>617-787-3700<\/strong> to learn about your legal options in a <strong>free, confidential consultation<\/strong>.\u00a0 We will work hard to get you the money compensation you deserve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your needs are our top priority!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A jury at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago has found in favor of an inmate who claimed that he was beaten by a prison guard, awarding him $451,000 in monetary compensation for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/jury-awards-mass-murderer-451000-in-personal-injury-lawsuit-against-prison-guard\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}