The family of a man who died in Cook County Jail last year after he was beaten by guards is suing Sheriff Tom Dart alleging civil rights violations and demanding punitive damages.
The 73-page suit filed last week in the Northern District of Illinois by the stepfather of Cory Ulmer, who was 41 when he died, accuses Dart of having a “pattern and practice of covering up or turning a blind eye to the use of excessive force.”
An additional 30 county employees are named defendants in the lawsuit.
Ulmer’s death in June 2024 came less than two weeks after Injustice Watch published “Dying on Dart’s Watch,” an investigation which revealed numerous policy violations and lack of oversight underlying 18 deaths at the jail in 2023, the highest single-year mortality rate at the jail in decades.
At first, Dart’s office was reluctant to release details about Ulmer to reporters or his family, only saying he had “suffered a medical emergency.”
But internal records leaked to Injustice Watch showed Ulmer died following a violent confrontation with several correctional officers in the jail’s emergency room.
Records and video obtained by the family’s lawyer, Jesse Guth, now offer a detailed and disturbing account of the events leading to Ulmer’s death.
“Both Cook County and the Sheriff have refused to provide answers or accountability for the brutal, inhumane treatment Cory suffered,” Guth said in an emailed statement to Injustice Watch.
“Cory’s death is a tragedy, but it is not an isolated one. Now, more than ever, we must reaffirm that the Constitution still matters in this country and that the most vulnerable among us are deserving of its protection.”
Dart declined to be interviewed, and his spokesperson did not respond to the lawsuit’s assertions, citing an ongoing internal investigation.
“The office takes very seriously the health and safety of all staff members and individuals in custody and aggressively investigates every incident involving the use of force,” Dart’s spokesperson said.
Ulmer was jailed last June after police found him walking after midnight near Midway International Airport — a violation of the conditions for his pretrial release following armed robbery and assault charges in 2023, records show. Ulmer was fighting the charges and had pleaded not guilty.
The arresting officers said Ulmer appeared to be “off his meds” and took him to the jail to receive medical treatment, according to the lawsuit.
Less than two days later, he was dead.
In that short amount of time, Ulmer suffered greatly, the lawsuit alleges.
Records and video obtained by Guth show Ulmer was kept in a holding cell or “bullpen” in the basement of the jail’s medical facility without a bed, sink or toilet. Ulmer was supposed to be transferred to the jail’s psychiatric unit, but he was never taken there, the lawsuit says.
Medical staff also failed to administer his bipolar medication, even though they had access to his medical history and knew he suffered from “severe psychiatric issues,” the complaint says.
Eleven employees of the jail’s medical facility — Cermak Health Services, a division of Cook County Health — are named defendants in the lawsuit.
Jesus “Manny” Estrada, chief operating officer for Cermak, declined to be interviewed, and a spokesperson declined to answer questions.
Correctional officers also abused Ulmer more than once, the lawsuit says.
Ulmer was handcuffed and shackled to a bench in the holding cell overnight as “retaliation” for defecating in the cell, the complaint alleges.
The next morning, officers “caused Ulmer to fall and strike his head on a metal pole outside of his cell.” Officers then “dragged” Ulmer back into the cell, but failed to document the incident in violation of jail policy, according to the lawsuit and records obtained by Injustice Watch.
Later that day, while Ulmer was still shackled, unmedicated, and showing “obvious signs his mental state was deteriorating,” several officers used force against Ulmer after he tried to run out of the cell, according to the suit.
The scramble left Ulmer “motionless on the floor.” At that moment, the correctional officer in charge, Sergeant Enrique Reyes, turned off his body-worn camera, and officers dragged Ulmer “out of view of the single security camera” and repeatedly punched and kicked him while he was handcuffed and shackled on the ground, the lawsuit says.
Officers then placed Ulmer in a restraint chair, medical staff injected him with a sedative, and he went limp “like a ragdoll,” the lawsuit says. Medical staff immediately called 911, but it took paramedics 20 minutes to reach Ulmer as officers radioed for his location. Paramedics rushed Ulmer to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Jail officials are obligated by law to quickly notify the county’s medical examiner about any deaths at the jail so tests and inquiries can begin as soon as possible.
However, it was a Mount Sinai nurse who reported Ulmer’s death to the medical examiner’s office after officers prevented the hospital from moving his body to the morgue on the orders of two jail officials, Lieutenant Leroy Kelly Jr. and assistant director Lonnie Hollis, the lawsuit says.
By the time the medical examiner’s investigator saw his body, Ulmer had been dead for seven hours. And when the investigator arrived at the jail, “the scene had already been cleared,” the lawsuit says.
An autopsy revealed Ulmer had a brain hemorrhage before he died, and the medical examiner ruled Ulmer’s death a homicide, records show.
The failure to document UImer’s initial head injury followed by a failure to notify the medical examiner of his death reeks of impropriety, said Carmen Navarro Gercone, a training consultant with the National Sheriffs’ Association and Dart’s former top aide who ran against him in 2022.
“That to me was a conscious choice not to make those notifications, not to make those phone calls, to clean that up — that was all intentional,” Navarro Gercone said.
“When we don’t do the simple things like report, document, and notify, it looks like you’re trying to cover something up,” she said.
Members of the Illinois State Police investigated Ulmer’s death and sent their final report to county prosecutors in February, according to a spokesperson for State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.
In April, prosecutors declined to press charges, the spokesperson said.
Dart’s spokesperson said the sheriff’s own investigation into Ulmer’s death is ongoing. None of the officers involved have resigned or have been fired.
Since 2014, Cook County taxpayers have paid more than $113 million to settle lawsuits against the sheriff’s office, records show.
Read the full complaint:
Read More
Cook County Jail’s deadliest year in decades reveals repeated lapses and failed oversight
Handcuffed detainee dies at Cook County Jail after being beaten by guards, records show
Republish this article for free under a Creative Commons license.
