Chilcutt v. City Of Waukegan

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 26, 2022
Docket1:19-cv-06732
StatusUnknown

This text of Chilcutt v. City Of Waukegan (Chilcutt v. City Of Waukegan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chilcutt v. City Of Waukegan, (N.D. Ill. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

SARAH CHILCUTT,

Plaintiff, No. 19 CV 6732 v. Judge Manish S. Shah THE CITY OF WAUKEGAN, et al.,

Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Aaron Chilcutt’s wife called officers of the Waukegan Police Department to the apartment that she shared with her husband, concerned that he had attempted to commit suicide. Officers sent Chilcutt to a hospital for evaluation. Two weeks later, Chilcutt’s wife called police again—this time about physical abuse—and Chilcutt was arrested pursuant to a warrant. While in the WPD jail, Chilcutt killed himself using a blanket. Chilcutt’s daughter, Sarah Chilcutt, sues police officers and the City of Waukegan for failing to provide adequate medical treatment or to protect Chilcutt from himself. Defendants move for summary judgment. For the reasons that follow, their motion is granted in part and denied in part. I. Legal Standards Summary judgment is appropriate if the movants show that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). A genuine dispute as to any material fact exists if “the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986) (citation omitted). I construe all facts and draw all inferences in favor of plaintiff, the nonmoving party. Robertson v. Dep’t of Health Servs., 949 F.3d 371, 377–78 (7th Cir.

2020) (citation omitted). I need only consider the cited materials, but I may consider “other materials in the record.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(3). II. Facts A. Initial Call to Police and Hospitalization On October 7, 2017, Mandy Tumis called the Waukegan Police Department, worried that her husband, Aaron Chilcutt, was suicidal. [54-1] ¶¶ 1–2.1 Officers

Loyda Santiago and Rick Tabisz responded. Id. At Tumis and Chilcutt’s apartment, Tumis told the officers that Chilcutt had been drinking, was suicidal, and that he had taken pills—Warfarin, Tylenol, and perhaps aspirin. Id. ¶¶ 3–4.2 Tumis also told Santiago that Chilcutt had physically assaulted her, said that he was “tired of living and over his ‘effing’ life,” and had attempted suicide in the past. [54-1] ¶ 4; [68] ¶ 4.3

1 Bracketed numbers refer to entries on the district court docket. Referenced page numbers are taken from the CM/ECF header placed at the top of filings, except in the case of citations to depositions, which use the deposition transcript’s original page number. The facts are largely taken from plaintiff’s response to defendants’ joint Local Rule 56.1 statement, [54-1], and defendants’ response to plaintiff’s statement of additional facts, [68], where both the asserted fact and the opposing party’s response are set forth in one document. Any fact not properly controverted is admitted. N.D. Ill. Local R. 56.1(e)(3); see Cracco v. Vitran Exp., Inc., 559 F.3d 625, 632 (7th Cir. 2009). I disregard legal arguments in the statements of facts, see Cady v. Sheahan, 467 F.3d 1057, 1060 (7th Cir. 2006), and ignore additional facts included in response to the asserted fact that do not controvert the asserted fact. N.D. Ill. Local R. 56.1(e)(2); see [54-1] ¶¶ 11, 32–33, 36–37, 40, 43, 68, 71–72, 74, 76; [68] ¶¶ 6, 15–16, 24. 2 According Santiago’s report, Tumis said that Chilcutt had taken a bottle of aspirin, twenty or more pills of Warfarin, and a lot of whiskey. [54-1] ¶ 8. 3 Defendants’ statements of fact related to domestic-violence accusations against Chilcutt are relevant. See [54-1] ¶¶ 11–13, 19–21, 26–27, 29–30, 33; Fed. R. Evid. 401. Plaintiff’s Chilcutt disputed his wife’s account: he told Santiago that Tumis was lying, that he didn’t take all of the pills that Tumis said he had taken, and that he wasn’t suicidal. [54-1] ¶ 5.

Officer Santiago decided to transport Chilcutt to a hospital because Chilcutt had suicidal ideations and had taken pills in an attempt to commit suicide. [54-1] ¶¶ 6–7. Chilcutt agreed to go to the hospital but told officers that his wife was exaggerating about the pills he had taken. Id. ¶ 9. Chilcutt was transported in an ambulance, and Santiago drove Tumis separately. Id. ¶¶ 7, 10. In a conversation with a WPD trainee, Officer Tabisz said that officers took suicidal detainees seriously,

even when they denied suicidal ideation, and that they would have Tumis come to the hospital to fill out an involuntary commitment form for Chilcutt. [68] ¶ 2; [56] at 08:19:15–08:20:25 (marked as Ex. 20). Santiago encouraged Tumis to speak to Chilcutt’s doctor, and to secure an order of protection against her husband. See [68] ¶ 5; [61] at 9:03:00–9:06:20. Santiago said that Chilcutt’s aggressive behavior was a sign of psychosis, which Chilcutt’s doctors needed to know about. See [68] ¶ 5; [61] at 9:04:00–9:06:20. Tumis

said that she wanted to obtain an emergency order, but ultimately didn’t complete the required paperwork. See [54-1] ¶ 11; [54-3] at 29–30; [59] at 14:24:00–14:27:00. In a domestic-violence victim statement, Tumis wrote that Chilcutt physically abused

Fourteenth Amendment claims depend on whether the officers’ actions were objectively reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances. See McCann v. Ogle Cnty., Illinois, 909 F.3d 881, 886 (7th Cir. 2018) (inadequate care); Kemp v. Fulton Cnty., 27 F.4th 491, 497 (7th Cir. 2022) (failure to protect). That the officers were aware of domestic-violence allegations against Chilcutt is relevant to the reasonableness of their actions. her on a daily basis, and “threatens to kill himself and me weekly.” [54-1] ¶ 12. Tumis completed an involuntary commitment petition, seeking to have Chilcutt admitted to the hospital. Id. ¶ 13. Tumis wrote that Chilcutt had been suicidal on multiple

occasions, was aggressive, and physically assaulted her. Id. Tumis spoke to a doctor about Chilcutt, who was admitted to the hospital “for medical reasons and a psychiatric evaluation.” [54-1] ¶ 10. Officers Santiago and Tabisz were present when Chilcutt was involuntarily committed. [68] ¶ 3. According to a medical record, Chilcutt was drunk when he arrived at the hospital, didn’t know why he was in the emergency department, and said that he had only taken two

Warfarin and four Tylenol pills the previous night. [54-1] ¶ 14; [46-3] at 201. Chilcutt denied thoughts of suicide, and one of his doctors wrote that Chilcutt didn’t show symptoms of depression and suicide. [54-1] ¶ 14; [46-3] at 201. But on another medical record, the same doctor wrote that Chilcutt needed to be involuntarily admitted, found that Chilcutt was in need of immediate hospitalization to prevent physical harm associated with mental illness, and noted that lab reports were inconsistent with Chilcutt’s account of the pills he had taken. [54-4] at 2; see [54-1] ¶ 14. A second

doctor wrote that Chilcutt’s chief complaints were ingestion of Tylenol and Coumadin and potential suicide, that Chilcutt denied thoughts of suicide but had an elevated Tylenol level, and that in light of his suicidal ideation, “Psych” should clear him from the emergency department. [54-1] ¶ 15; [46-3] at 202; [68] ¶ 14; [54-20] at 3–4. Another medical record showed that Chilcutt’s principal diagnosis was accidental poisoning by 4-aminophenol derivatives, with secondary diagnoses of (among other things) accidental poisoning by anticoagulants and a history of self-harm. [54-1] ¶ 17; [46-3] at 203.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Estate of Escobedo v. Bender
600 F.3d 770 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1986)
City of Canton v. Harris
489 U.S. 378 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Thomas v. Cook County Sheriff's Department
604 F.3d 293 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
Pearson v. Callahan
555 U.S. 223 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Linda Florek v. Village of Mundelei
649 F.3d 594 (Seventh Circuit, 2011)
Hall v. Ryan
957 F.2d 402 (Seventh Circuit, 1992)
Ortiz v. Webster
655 F.3d 731 (Seventh Circuit, 2011)
Henry Clash v. Michael Beatty
77 F.3d 1045 (Seventh Circuit, 1996)
Sanville v. Mccaughtry
266 F.3d 724 (Seventh Circuit, 2001)
Collins v. Seeman
462 F.3d 757 (Seventh Circuit, 2006)
Estate of Rudy Escob v. Brian Marti
702 F.3d 388 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
Farmer v. Brennan
511 U.S. 825 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Minix v. Canarecci
597 F.3d 824 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Chilcutt v. City Of Waukegan, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chilcutt-v-city-of-waukegan-ilnd-2022.