A Jacksonville man said an encounter with police resulted in having to undergo surgery to reattach his ear and will leave him in a neck brace for several months.
Robert Black said his right ear was ripped off halfway down to the ear canal and was held on by about three-quarters of an inch of skin. He also said he suffered a 4-inch-long cut on the right side of his head and must wear a neck brace for several months to help a fractured vetebrae heal.
(To view photos of Robert Black's injuries, go here.)
“I don’t see how I would get these injuries without excessive force,” he said Monday.
Black said he was injured during an arrest Friday outside of a downtown Jacksonville bar.
Police are reviewing the incident, but said Black resisted arrest and it appears the officers involved “worked within the scope that they should be,” Deputy Police Chief Tim Shea said Monday.
“It’s unfortunate. If he would have just left after he was repeatedly told to do so, this would never have happened,” Shea said. “Do I want people hurt? Absolutely not. I wish nobody would resist and they would all go peacefully.”
Black, a carpenter, said the operation on his ear probably cost more than $100,000 and he has no medical insurance to pay for it.
“I don’t think I should be liable for it because I didn’t do this to myself,” Black said. He said he has spoken to an attorney in Springfield about a lawsuit.
Black, 28, of 1013 E. Morton Ave., Apt. 51, was cited about 1:45 a.m. Friday in the 200 block of South Main Street on a misdemeanor charge of resisting a peace officer and violating city ordinances of disturbing the peace and public intoxication.
His brother-in-law, Thomas Shamblin, 24, was cited on a violation of a public intoxication ordinance.
“I don’t think I was that intoxicated. I remember most of the night except the part where I lost my ear,” Black said.
Black said he couldn’t recall how many drinks he had during nearly eight hours of bar-hopping, but he remembers having $40 when he began drinking about 6 p.m. Thursday. When he returned home from the hospital, he still had about $17 of that, he said.
Police are not releasing the names of the officers involved in the arrest. The officers have submitted additional use of force reports, which is required any time an officer uses force, and those reports were forwarded to the chief and deputy chief for review, Shea said.
Black went to the police department Monday so he could be booked on his charges. Black declined to make a statement to police.
Police accused Black of resisting arrest and an officer had to take him to the ground. Black told the Journal-Courier he didn’t do anything wrong and was walking away, as the officers had instructed him to do, when he was tackled.
“I never fought back with the cops or, otherwise, I would have had an aggravated battery charge or something like that,” Black said.
Police said an off-duty officer called the police department at 1:21 a.m. to have officers come to Don’s Place because two people were being argumentative and confrontational after they were stopped trying to walk out of the bar with containers of alcoholic beverages.
The two men reportedly said they were mixed martial arts fighters as they confronted the off-duty officer and others inside the bar, police said. Black told the Journal-Courier he is not involved in mixed martial arts and denied saying he was.
One of the responding patrolmen located two men, later identified as Black and Shamblin, running into the entrance of the Flying Pig Sports Bar at 219 S. Main St. They were told to leave the area and the men said they would go home, police said.
“The last thing I remember was one of my friends had a guy bothering her for an hour or so that night and me and my sister’s husband ... saw she was talking to an officer in front of Springer’s so we went over to talk to her and to see what was going on,” Black said.
Black said the officer told him and Shamblin to leave.
“Well I kept talking and Thomas got mad and threw a pack of gum down on the ground and he got arrested,” Black said. “I was walking away. I hadn’t been told I was under arrest. I was basically told to go home or go somewhere else. After that I’m completely unsure (of what happened) because I kind of blacked out.”
Black and Shamblin were “trying to interject themselves” while officers were investigating a disturbance or problem unrelated to the two men, Shea said.
Police said both men refused to leave so one of the officers warned them they would be arrested. Both men reportedly continued to argue with the officer and again were told to leave. The two began to walk away, but police said Black turned toward the officers and threw a box at the officers. It was later determined to be an almost full box of chewing gum.
Two officers then started walking toward Black and told him to stop. Black continued to walk away so one of the officers again ordered him to stop. The officer told Black to stop and that he was under arrest.
“Once he was told he was under arrest, he resisted that,” Shea said. “He pulled away, tensed up and tried to defeat the officers from arresting him. Once he did that, the officers are trained to take him to the ground where it’s easier to control the situation. The hope is the subject won’t get hurt and the officers won’t get hurt.”
Officers took Black to the concrete sidewalk and he landed on the side of his head, Shea said.
“Whether or not [his ear] got ripped off or was hanging by a thread, I have no idea,” Shea said.
As soon as officers saw that Black was injured, they called for medical personnel.
Black was taken to Passavant Area Hospital before being transferred to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield. He was released Saturday.
Several cases in which excessive force by Jacksonville police has been alleged have been reviewed over the past few years and “we stand behind our officers,” Shea said “The FBI has even reviewed them. I believe in the cases that have been resolved the officers were not faulted. If (our officers) did something wrong, we will certainly deal with that.”
In each of the situations “it appears that people chose to resist arrest and it’s extremely unfortunate that injuries resulted,” Shea said.
He encouraged people to go peacefully when being placed under arrest.
“If they think the arrest is improper or it shouldn’t have happened, those avenues will be presented to them in a court,” Shea said. “Let a judge decide those issues as opposed to you and the police officer making decisions out in the street.”