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Lawyers check helmet man wore while restrained By DANI DODGE Deputy Bill O'Grady stepped down from the witness stand Wednesday to demonstrate the county jail's "red man helmet." As the deputy encased plaintiff's attorney Marc Andresen's head in the red foam cushioning, Andersen quipped: "They didn't tell me about this in law school." The jury and nearly everyone else in the courtroom laughed. The trial What: The family of a former Jackson County Jail inmate, Jeffrey Stuart Anderson, is bringing suit against the county in federal court for excessive force and wrongful death. The case is being heard before an eight-person jury. Wednesday: The family's attorneys continued their case, calling to the witness stand three deputies, a psychiatrist, and a mental health worker who had checked on Anderson while he was in the restraint chair. An economist testified that had Anderson lived, the value of his earnings and services would have exceeded $500,000. Today: The family's attorneys will conclude their case by bringing the restraint chair into the courtroom. Among their witnesses expected are experts on use of force. The county is expected begin its case with testimony from a local doctor. Coming up: Judge John P. Cooney expects to give jury instructions Monday. But in the front row of the audience, Jeffrey Stuart Anderson's 72-year-old mother, Helen Anderson, shielded her eyes with one hand and used the other to wipe them with a wadded tissue. Jeffrey Stuart Anderson's family is suing Jackson County for excessive use of force and wrongful death. Anderson died five years ago after a head trauma caused a blood clot the size of a baseball in his brain. He suffered the injury while in the Jackson County Jail and his family alleges the county didn't get him to the hospital soon enough to save his life. When the 33-year-old was transported to the hospital, he also had severe bruising on his extremities, neck and face. When Anderson turned himself in to the jail on April 2, 1996, he was uninjured. But within a few days, Anderson, who was a heavy drinker, began experiencing alcohol withdrawal. The graveyard crew's officer in charge, Bill O'Grady, testified Wednesday that on April 5 he wasn't immediately aware that Anderson was suffering from alcohol withdrawal. No medication had been left to help calm him, and the graveyard crew thought he might be high on alcohol or drugs when he banged on his detox cell door and yelled to be set free. O'Grady said he made the decision Anderson needed to be restrained. "I felt Mr. Anderson was definitely a threat to my staff number one, and to himself," O'Grady said. "He had all of a sudden flipped out. That raised a red flag for me because I didn't know where he would go next." O'Grady said several deputies went into the cell, one carrying pepper spray. Anderson was kneeling and the deputies pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him. Then they put him in the jail's restraint chair. He stayed there more than 10 hours. The "red man helmet" was put on him to keep him from biting deputies, and to protect his head, officers have said. When one of the deputies took the helmet off Anderson to cool him down with a wet washcloth, he noticed bruising. "As a result of struggling with us constantly, I noticed some darkening under Anderson's right eye and an abrasion on his right forehead," Deputy Michael Szpak wrote in a report after the incident. "Anderson's wrists were slightly swollen and cut from him pulling on the handcuffs constantly." All of the deputies who have testified in the trial, though, say the use of force was minimal and no one ever struck Anderson. They told investigators that Anderson must have banged himself against the wall of his cell. Jerry Larsen, a psychiatrist who specializes in drug and alcohol treatment, said Anderson's bruising was far from ordinary. "I restrain people all the time, but I've never seen anyone like that," he said. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.