More Top Picks Best Slip On Sneakers For Men With Support
player ready...While making it clear she did not endorse the way authorities interrogated a Naperville teenager who then killed himself, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the boy’s family and ruled that his constitutional rights were not violated.
Corey Walgren, a 16-year-old junior at Naperville North High School, was summoned to administrative offices Jan. 11, 2017, to meet with Dean Stephen Madden and Naperville police Officer Brett Heun, who is assigned to the campus. The two questioned the teen about an allegation that he had a video of a recent sexual encounter with a female classmate on his phone and that he had played the recording for friends.
Heun and Madden — who are also named as individual defendants in the lawsuit — accused Walgren of possessing child pornography and threatened him with placement on the state’s sex offender registry, according to the lawsuit. The recording they sought, however, ended up being a video file with no discernible images. Police described it as “very dark” and “more of only audio.”
After the meeting, Walgren was told to wait in an office for his mother to arrive at the school. He instead left the building and headed toward a downtown Naperville parking garage, where he climbed to the fifth floor and then plummeted to his death.
In their lawsuit, his parents, Doug and Maureen, accused the officer and school dean of illegally questioning him without notifying them first and causing him extreme psychological distress.
U.S. Judge Andrea Wood dismissed the lawsuit last week, saying the officials may have exercised questionable judgment but did not violate the teen’s constitutional rights. She wrote that she based her ruling solely on the Walgrens’ allegations and did not consider any facts that may have been disputed by the school and Police Department.
“Faced with the implied threat of such consequences, it is perhaps unsurprising that a previously well-adjusted teenager’s emotional state could deteriorate to such a point that he would contemplate taking his life,” she wrote in her 22-page ruling. “Nonetheless, these events as currently pleaded do not plausibly allege the constitutional violations asserted by plaintiffs.”
Wood dismissed the entire lawsuit without prejudice, meaning the Walgrens could re-file their petition at a later date. They also could appeal the case to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The family’s attorney, Terry Ekl, said they are considering their options.
“We respect it, but we strongly disagree with Judge Wood’s ruling,” Ekl said. “This case is far from over.”
In a statement, Naperville City Attorney Mike DiSanto said, “While we are pleased with the decision, there are no winners in this tragic matter.
“The City’s sympathies remain with the Walgrens and everyone involved. We continue to have confidence in our Police Department and the service they provide.”
Naperville District 203 released a statement extending its sympathies toward the Walgren family but did not answer questions about the concerns Wood raised in her ruling.
Both the city and school district have said they would not change any policies or procedures following Walgren’s death.
“The staff and community of Naperville 203 remain saddened by the death of our student and extend heartfelt sympathy to all those affected by this tragedy,” the school district’s statement read. “At Naperville 203, the student-staff relationships are of paramount importance and we remain confident in our staff who serve with our students’ best interest at heart.”
The judge, however, made it clear that she was not condoning the way the interview was conducted. While it may have been legal for authorities to make Walgren think he could end up on a sex offender registry, it was not necessarily right to do so.
“The court’s determination that the individual defendant’s actions, as pleaded, are not objectively unreasonable for purposes of a Fourth Amendment analysis should not be understood as an endorsement of those actions by this Court,” Wood wrote. “Registration as a sex offender entails severe restrictions on a sex offender’s liberty. … And in Illinois, a juvenile convicted on charges related to child pornography could potentially be forced to remain a registered sex offender for the rest of his or her life.”
Heun and Madden spoke with Walgren for 18 minutes, according to police reports, before calling his parents. Once they reached Maureen Walgren, Heun talked to her on a speakerphone with the teen in the room. He told her that her son was being investigated for “child pornography” and could end up being placed on the sex offender registry, Maureen Walgren has told the Tribune.
The officer then told Maureen Walgren he intended to download items from her son’s phone and needed her consent, according to the reports. Walgren, a nurse, said she would leave work immediately and be at the school within 50 minutes.
After the phone call, the officer and the dean walked Corey Walgren to an office waiting area and told him to sit down. The two went to speak with Principal Stephanie Posey, leaving the teen to wait for his mother.
He walked out of the school a few minutes later and headed toward the garage. He climbed to the fifth floor and then committed suicide by plummeting 53 feet to the ground. His mother, who had arrived at the school to find her son missing, was in her car just a few blocks away searching for him when he fell.
More Top Picks Best Tandem Kayaks
Despite the allegations of child pornography, police never intended to pursue charges, records show. Rather, they indicated authorities wanted to handle the matter in a way that ensured Corey Walgren understood the seriousness of his actions.
“While the Individual Defendants may have ‘exercised questionable judgment’ in the way they went about questioning Walgren,” Wood wrote, “the court cannot conclude that their actions shock the conscience.”
Twitter @stacystclair