Lake County Jail Death: Chiefs Demoted, Officers On Leave

WAUKEGAN, IL — Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran Thursday demoted his jail chief and put two officers on administrative leave pending an investigation into the death of an inmate at Lake County Jail. Chief Dave Wathen was demoted to deputy chief and his deputy, Ted Uchiek was demoted to lieutenant, Curran said.

A lieutenant and a sergeant who were in command of the maximum security area of the jail at the time of the detainee's death were placed on administrative leave. Curran said they could both be terminated as a result of the what the sheriff perceived as the "egregious nature of their absence of command responsibility."

Edward Robinson, III, 32, of Waukegan, died Wednesday after he was found unresponsive alone in a cell in Lake County Jail, according to the Lake County Coroner's Office. Paramedics were called shortly after 11 a.m. to the administrative segregation unit of the jail, according to a statement from the sheriff's office. Waukegan paramedics arrived a few minutes after Robinson was given first-aid and an automated external defibrillator was administered by jail nursing staff, according to sheriff's office spokesman Sgt. Chris Covelli.

Robinson was taken to Vista East Hospital in Waukegan and pronounced dead. There were no signs of trauma related to the incident, according to Lake Coroner Howard Cooper. The coroner's office conducted an autopsy Thursday afternoon, and a ruling on the cause and manner of Robinson's death awaits further testing and a toxicology screening, Cooper said. According to Curran, there is no evidence that jail staff or other detainees did anything to cause Robinson's death, and the autopsy indicated Robinson was not assaulted and did not take his own life.

The sheriff put the officers in command on administrative leave after he viewed the video of the incident. Curran also promised to release the video at least a month before the upcoming Nov. 6 election.

"Ultimately correctional officers have a responsibility to the people who they're entrusted with," Curran said. "They can fail in that regard if they don't act according to both their training and what our standards are." Curran did not specify what the officers did – or did not – do on the recording of the incident. He said the lieutenant in charge had been a correctional officer in the county for more than 30 years.

Robinson had been held at the Lake County Jail for just over two months before his death. He was brought in on July 17 on a disorderly conduct charge related to a July 3 incident. At the time he was also on probation after pleading guilty in June to an attempted burglary charge related to a March 23 incident in Waukegan.

On July 23, Robinson was transferred to the administrative segregation unit, a high-security level of the facility where each cell houses a single detainee. He had been separated from the rest of the jail's population "due to disruptive behavior and threatening harm toward other inmates," according to the sheriff's office.

In August, a judge determined Robinson was unfit to stand trial but ordered the man held until he could be placed elsewhere by the Illinois Department of Human Services, according to the sheriff's office and court records.

The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force is investigating his death, as is protocol for inmate deaths. Curran anticipated that the investigation would be complete by Oct. 5, but he said his office would release the video by that date regardless.

"Because there's an election, I didn't want to play games with trying to delay the release or not release the video. I didn't think that was appropriate," Curran said. "I saw the way the [Laquan McDonald] case in Chicago was handled and I was offended and I thought it was really abhorrent that they would deliberately delay the release of the video until after an election that they could have released before it."

Neither of the members of Curran's appointed command staff were on scene at the time, but he decided it was time to demote his chief of corrections, who had been in charge of the jail for 28 years. Curran promoted one deputy chief, Bill Kinville, to interim chief while the other, Ted Uchiek, was demoted to the position of lieutenant, a non-appointed position.

Curran said he had considered a national search for a new chief of corrections since his last term but was dissuaded at the time by his senior command staff. The sheriff said it would be difficult to recruit the best talent and convince them to relocate at any point other than the start of a four-year term in office.

"But as time wore on I continued to think that we needed to make a change, and when I saw the video I wasn't happy with what I saw," Curran said. "Although we're going to have a national search – provided I win – after Nov. 6, I thought that Bill Kinville and not Dave Wathen was the best person to lead at this time."