Recently in Battery / Assault Category

She won't be the first to sue MTV over its outrageously raunchy reality television series "Jersey Shore," but Illinois resident Carrie Malec claims the show's producers and cast members regularly provoke conflict in order to boost ratings, Asbury Park Press reported.

Perhaps true reality just wouldn't be entertaining enough for TV?

Chicago injury lawyer Blake Horwitz, representing the plaintiff, filed his client's civil action for assault in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, claiming a pattern of "criminal activity." She is seeking more than $75,000 damages.

A 59-year-old woman who was a patient at Weiss Memorial Hospital filed a lawsuit claiming that 49-year-old nurse James Whittington injected her with morphine and sexually assaulted her, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Neither the plaintiff nor her Illinois injury attorney were named or quoted in the article.

The woman was admitted to the hospital for chest pains in February 2009; she was examined and admitted for further testing. But the nurse allegedly took advantage of her in the secluded room where she was admitted.

Cook County Correctional Officer Rubin Lopez (and White Sox fan) has filed a lawsuit against his beloved Chicago White Sox baseball franchise and its security team for a 2009 scuffle in which he was arrested, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. A struggle ensued after another fan allegedly threw a plastic beer bottle over the upper deck during a game between interleague rivals Cubs and White Sox.

As with any legal action, there are two sides to this story. Undisputed is the fact that a spectator began cursing and then threw a beer bottle off the upper deck. Fans summoned security and officers took a Cubs fan into custody, a man Rubin Lopez told security officers was the wrong guy.

Beyond that, it gets a little hazy. 

Personal injury lawsuits in Chicago and elsewhere are called "adversarial" for a reason: Regardless of which party ultimately prevails, each party's Illinois injury attorney has the duty to advocate for his client in order to win the case.

But rape and sexual abuse victims often feel victimized once more when forced to answer for their sexual history, sometimes deciding not to report the crime, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC). The same could be said about civil suits seeking damages for battery or assault on rape or sexual abuse allegations. 

A FAQ section provided by the NCVC discusses so-called "rape shield laws" that limit such potentially humiliating defense tactics. A new Illinois law that took effect on Jan. 1 essentially does just that.      

Park Ridge teenager Gavin Farley received a $185,000 payment for the settlement of a 2007 lawsuit against the city. Farley was 15-years-old when he claimed an officer slammed his head against the ground and that another cop punched him in the face and head (Park Ridge Herald-Advocate).

The incident allegedly took place during a 2006 arrest and the original lawsuit claims that the juvenile's parents were denied a request to file a complaint against the Police Dept. for battery.

A homeless man and woman asked Jennifer Hall and her fiancé for a cigarette as she left a Jewel Food Store on Aug. 25, 2008. When she denied them the requested smokes, the pair allegedly attacked them (Chicago Bar-Tender). 

She lost "most of her teeth" and doctors mended her fractured skull with 85 staples (Tribune). 

Now she's suing the grocery store because "homeless persons and others were known to loiter outside the [store], commonly congregating on the wall along the sidewalk," according to the complaint. And then, she alleges, Jewel should have known the homeless pair had a "violent propensity."

One man shot with a Taser stun gun told British reporters that the experience was "like someone reached into my body to rip my muscles apart with a fork" (Independent UK). Yikes. So why did an off-duty Kankakee Police officer think it was okay to Taser three boys in a junior high school classroom (ABC Chicago)?

Stunned parents of two of the 12-year-old boys would like to know the answer to that question and have filed federal injury lawsuits totaling more than $10 million (ABC Chicago). 

One of the most difficult sacrifices police officers make, especially if they have families, must be working the graveyard shift or on holidays. Crime doesn't sleep or recognize national holidays.

So it's probably a good idea to show a little empathy for the folks in blue working their beats while you snooze or party 'til dawn.

But while cops working on Christmas Eve, for example, may be a little cranky, they don't need to go around body slamming people and breaking knee caps. That's what John Preston Jr. claims happened in the wee hours of Dec. 24 (Sun-Times), alleging excessive force and illegal seizure in his injury lawsuit against a Chicago Police officer alleging battery and assault.

It could be argued that Elgin attorney Jonathon Carbary wasn't really injured when the ample belly of opposing counsel, Aurora attorney Christopher Carroll, bumped into his (Sun-Times).

It all started inside the courtroom, when Carroll said he didn't appreciate how Carbary "dismissively" slammed a court document down on the table. Tempers continued to flare throughout the hearing and then the two men met outside, where the alleged "belly battery" occurred.

Former gymnastics coach Michael Cardamone is still awaiting retrial on sexual abuse charges but his employer's insurance company agreed to settle the civil cases filed by the families of 13 former students who allege he molested them (Tribune). Cardamone's mother, Linda Lynch, also named as a defendant continues to claim her son is innocent.