By Jonathan Bullington
Tribune reporter
9:27 p.m. CST, March 8, 2014
A federal jury awarded a man serving a life-sentence for the 1993 massacre of seven workers at a Brown’s Chicken restaurant in suburban Palatine nearly a half-million dollars in his civil rights lawsuit against a former Cook County Jail guard accused of beating him in 2002.
When told by the Tribune Saturday of the jury's decision in favor of James Degorski the day before, the families of the victims expressed outrage…
In May 2002, a few hours after he arrived in the maximum-security tier at Cook County Jail, Degorski, now 41, was allegedly beaten by Thomas Wilson, who was a Cook County Sheriff's deputy.
The blows left Degorski with facial fractures that required surgery to insert two metal plates in his face. Wilson was placed on unpaid leave and eventually fired in 2004 by the Cook County Sheriff’s Merit Board.
Wilson claimed his actions were in self-defense, and a Cook County circuit judge acquitted him in 2003 of aggravated battery and official misconduct charges.
In May 2004, Degorski sued Wilson, another correctional officer, and former Sheriff Michael Sheahan. The suit accused Wilson of using excessive force and the others for failing to stop him.
The civil case was postponed while Degorski’s criminal case played out in court. During that time, his attorney in the civil suit died, Bonjean said, and it appeared he might not find another willing to represent him. He was convicted of the mass murders in 2009; his accomplice Juan Luna was convicted in 2007…..
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