Lawsuit against local deputies resurfaces in Grundy County

A Shell Rock man who alleges that two sheriff’s deputies repeatedly tased and beat him in violation of his civil rights after a traffic stop near Austinville in 2015 has filed a lawsuit in Grundy County District Court against the aforementioned officers —one from Butler County and one from Grundy County—along with Sheriffs Jason Johnson and Rick Penning after a federal judge partially ruled in the defendants’ favor last month.
           
According to the nine-page filing dated November 7, 47-year-old Charles McManemy led officers on a high-speed chase after Grundy County Deputy Kirk Dolleslager attempted to pull him over for speeding just south of the Butler-Grundy line on March 19, 2015, and Dolleslager continued to pursue McManemy, who was also the subject of a narcotics trafficking investigation, as he headed east on a 335th Street, a gravel road in Butler County.
           
As officers from both counties followed the suspect and reached speeds between 80 and 90 miles per hour, Butler County Deputy Kiley Winterberg threw a closed spike strip through the front window of his vehicle—striking his shoulder—and McManemy stopped his car about a mile west of Austinville on 320th Street to surrender after being rammed twice and detouring through a plowed cornfield during the high speed chase.
           
Then, the lawsuit alleges, McManemy laid face down in the middle of the road and awaited arrest (the federal ruling also indicates that he lit a cigarette) when Dolleslager and Deputy Curt Lubben of Butler County commenced the process of handcuffing him. The suspect asserted that he could not be routinely apprehended due to prior injuries and required two sets of cuffs.
 
McManemy was charged with Operating While Intoxicated Second Offense, Driving While License Under Suspension, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Carrying Weapons and Possession of Burglar’s Tools. In October of 2015, he was convicted of Eluding—Injury, OWI, Drugs or Participating in a Felony and OWI Second Offense and sentenced to five years in prison. The burglar’s tools and weapons charges were dismissed. 
 
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