James
Grimaldi, a Lincoln lawyer, got a continuance the hard way on Wednesday when he
helped subdue a defendant in the Logan County courthouse who ended up in an
ambulance
A
courthouse security officer was also injured and taken away by ambulance after
a struggle with the man, who tried bolting from courthouse as a judge was
preparing to send him to jail.
Grimaldi,
a former Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney, said that the man was
acting oddly enough that Logan County Associate Judge William Workman ordered
him to immediately take a drug test at the probation office in the courthouse. The
results came back positive for methamphetamine and benzodiazepines, Grimaldi
said.
“The
judge didn’t like that very much,” Grimaldi said. “He starts holding the guy in
criminal contempt (of court) for showing up high.”
Rather
than be arrested and jailed, the defendant bolted for a door used by attorneys
to enter and exit the courtroom.
“He
tried, basically, to jump through it,” Grimaldi said. “That door wasn’t going
anywhere. In that door was a glass window, an old-school glass window from 1903
or so. His head went right through it. The glass just exploded, and he
immediately started bleeding.”
A
bailiff grabbed the defendant, Grimaldi said, and the two fell down together, with
the bailiff striking the back of his head on the judicial bench or some other
wooden object.
“They
had to take him to the hospital,” Grimaldi said.
The
bailiff remained on the floor, but the defendant sprang up and began running toward
the jury box, Grimaldi said. Two courthouse security officers grabbed the man
near the jury box and began grappling with him, attempting to bring him under
control.
“He
just won’t go down,” recalled Grimaldi, who was standing near the jury box. “As
they start struggling with him, I take my jacket off — in case he’s coming in
my direction, I didn’t want him to ruin my jacket. This guy is bleeding all
over the place. He’s sweaty, and wearing a t-shirt. Eventually, his shirt rips
completely off. As soon as I pulled off my coat and set it down, the guy breaks
free and starts running. He comes at me and I basically grab him. When I grab
him, we kind of topple over the bar rail and into the gallery portion (of the
courtroom). I land basically on top of him”
Grimaldi,
a former high school wrestling coach who dabbles in jujitsu, isn’t a stranger
to physical struggles. “I can’t take a punch worth a crap, but I can wrestle,”
he says. After falling into the gallery section of the courtroom with the
defendant, Gramaldi said he managed to get one of the man’s arms behind his
back so that courthouse security could get a cuff on him.
“He’s
still combative,” Grimaldi said. “Apparently, he starts going into some sort of
seizure or something. Right before that, he starts yelling, ‘Just kill me, just
kill me, just kill me.’ They have to give him a couple of shots of something to
get him out of his state. Finally, they get him on a stretcher and get him out of
there.”
Grimaldi
said that he does not know the defendant’s name. The medical conditions of neither
the courthouse security officer who was injured nor the defendant are clear. Neither
Logan County State’s Attorney Jonathan Wright nor Logan County Sheriff Steve
Nichols, whose deputies were present, could immediately be reached. Aside from
two scraped knees, a bruised hip and a cauliflower ear, Grimaldi said that he’s
fine.
Grimaldi
was in court to represent a woman who was due for sentencing, but the hearing
was postponed.
“All
in a day’s work,” Grimaldi said.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2017.
