1 A P P E A R A N C E S: 2 3 PRESENT: MS. SUZI SCHMIDT, LIQUOR COMMISSIONER MR. BERNARD WYSOCKI, BOARD ATTORNEY 4 MR. KEITH KAISER, LIQUOR INVESTIGATOR MS. LINDA WISCH, BOARD SECRETARY 5 6 ALSO PRESENT: MR. JOHN HALEY, ON BEHALF OF THE 7 OWNER DEPUTY MICHAEL FERGUSON 8 9 10 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DEPOSITION REPORTERS 2 (847) 356-6834 1 MR. WYSOCKI: This is in the matter of 2 Blarney Island, doing business as Port of Blarney at 3 27843 West Grass Lake Road, Antioch. This comes on 4 for complaint and notice of hearing. John Haley is 5 present from Port of Blarney. Mr. Haley, have you 6 received a copy of the complaint and notice of 7 hearing? 8 MR. HALEY: I have. We have. 9 MR. WYSOCKI: And are you pleading guilty or 10 not guilty? 11 MR. HALEY: Not guilty. 12 MR. WYSOCKI: And you understand that 13 Officer Ferguson will testify and then after that you 14 can ask him any questions and then you can make a 15 statement after that? 16 MR. HALEY: I do. 17 MR. WYSOCKI: All right. Those who are 18 going to testify please raise your right hand. 19 (PERSONS SWORN) 20 MR. WYSOCKI: 21 Q. Would you state your name, please? 22 A. Deputy Michael Ferguson. 23 Q. And you're with the Lake County Sheriff's 24 Office? DEPOSITION REPORTERS 3 (847) 356-6834 1 A. Correct. 2 Q. Turning your attention to August 8th at 3 about 1:03 A.M., did you have an occasion to be 4 dispatched out to Port of Blarney? 5 A. I did. 6 Q. And what was the nature of the dispatch? 7 A. I don't recall exactly how it came out, but 8 it might have been an unwanted subject or a highly 9 intoxicated subject. 10 Q. And when you arrived at Port of Blarney, 11 what did you notice? 12 A. I noticed two bouncers holding down one male 13 subject. 14 Q. And the male subject, was that Brandon 15 Wilson? 16 A. It was. 17 Q. And did you have a conversation then in your 18 investigation with that subject? 19 A. I did. 20 Q. And who did you speak to? 21 A. The bouncers that were holding him down. 22 Q. And what did they say to you and what did 23 you say to them? 24 A. I asked them what had been going on. The DEPOSITION REPORTERS 4 (847) 356-6834 1 first thing I did is I put that subject in handcuffs 2 and I asked them what was going on. They said that 3 the subject swung at one of the bouncers with his 4 fist and they needed him removed from the premises. 5 Q. Okay. And what happened after that? 6 A. I walked the subject, myself and my partner, 7 walked the subject to the rear of my squad car. The 8 subject refused to walk so he was basically dragged 9 to the rear of my squad car. He refused to get into 10 the back seat cooperatively so we both had to 11 physically put this gentleman into the back seat. 12 He was laid on his stomach in the back seat 13 of my squad car. In attempting to shut the door he 14 kicked his feet at both of us. We eventually got -- 15 We were able to pull him from the other side of the 16 squad car to pull his body to make him actually fit 17 into the back seat. And he kicked my passenger side 18 rear window out of my squad. And then he was leg 19 restrained. We put leg restrains on him and then he 20 was transported to jail. 21 Q. Besides being highly agitated, could you 22 determine the level of his intoxication? 23 A. He seemed highly intoxicated. 24 Q. Did he say anything? DEPOSITION REPORTERS 5 (847) 356-6834 1 A. Not about how much he drank. There was a 2 lot of cussing and things like that and spitting. 3 Q. And did you as part of your followup 4 investigation did you speak with anyone else or have 5 any further investigation on this? 6 A. I did. I spoke with -- Before I left I had 7 spoke with some other complainants to find out what 8 was going on and they said that his group of people 9 were trying to start fights with their group of 10 people which is how the whole thing started. Which 11 started on the Island, then it came over to shore 12 which continued there. And that's -- At that time 13 Brandon took a swing at the bouncer and we took him 14 to the ground. 15 Q. All right. Anything else? Any questions, 16 Mr. Haley? 17 MR. HALEY: No, not of the officer. 18 MR. WYSOCKI: Okay. Do you want to make a 19 statement? 20 MR. HALEY: Yeah, I do. I spoke with Rod 21 Hardman on this. Again, I wasn't there that evening, 22 but he said just as the officer stated, that there 23 was two groups of people and evidently this one group 24 was on a mission to get into trouble and start DEPOSITION REPORTERS 6 (847) 356-6834 1 trouble. And after the amount of time that the 2 Island had dealing with them, they -- especially this 3 one individual, they took him to shore physically. 4 And when they got him to shore, figured, okay, you're 5 on shore, get out of here, you know. And evidently 6 he hadn't had enough of arguing with other people so 7 he started on our security personnel and took a swing 8 at the bouncer. Actually I think he hit the bouncer 9 from what I'm told. That's when he was secured and 10 taken to the ground and Lake County was called. 11 How intoxicated I don't know. Evidently he 12 was and Rob seemed to think that he was on a little 13 bit more than just intoxication, alcohol, more like 14 drugs because he was so psycho. And that's it. 15 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I got a question. 16 Now, he came back on the ferry? 17 MR. HALEY: Yeah, we put him on the ferry. 18 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: So when he gets to 19 the shore and you tell him to go away, wouldn't you 20 like call the -- for someone to drive him home? 21 MR. HALEY: They were with a group. He was 22 with a group. 23 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: He was with a whole 24 group of people? DEPOSITION REPORTERS 7 (847) 356-6834 1 MR. HALEY: Yeah, and they were supposedly 2 going to drive him, but he didn't care to leave. He 3 just wanted to fight somebody. And, yes, of course, 4 we would have called somebody. We wouldn't let him 5 drive. We would have called the Sheriff, but he was 6 with a group and they said, oh, we'll get him out of 7 here and then, you know, realized he just didn't care 8 and sometimes you just call the police then. You 9 don't have a choice. 10 Again, he kicked the window out of a 11 squad car and spitting and all the other stuff that 12 they had to deal with it was -- You can imagine us 13 trying to deal with that guy or security anyway. 14 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Okay. 15 MR. WYSOCKI: Okay. Thank you for coming in 16 and we'll give you a decision within the next seven 17 days. 18 MR. HALEY: Thanks. 19 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Thank you. 20 (DELIBERATIONS HELD) 21 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: $500 fine. 22 23 24 DEPOSITION REPORTERS 8 (847) 356-6834 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS ) ) SS. 2 COUNTY OF LAKE ) 3 4 I HEREBY CERTIFY that I reported in 5 shorthand the proceedings had in the above-entitled 6 cause, and that the foregoing Report of Proceedings 7 is a true, correct, and complete transcript of my 8 shorthand notes so taken at the time and place set 9 forth. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Deborah L. Severson, CSR 084-001777 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DEPOSITION REPORTERS 9 (847) 356-6834