‘I got loud’: DuPage undersheriff disputes reports of bar brawl
DuPage County Undersheriff Eddie Moore is pushing back on published reports he sparked a New Year’s Eve brawl five years ago in Wisconsin that left a security guard with a broken finger.
“I was the target of a racial incident,” Moore told us when asked recently about the encounter that ended with him receiving a citation for disorderly conduct. “I got loud.”
Moore, who’s running for the GOP nomination to replace outgoing Sheriff James Mendrick, suspects politics is at play for reports of the ruckus surfacing this month. He faces former police officer and ex-DuPage County Board member Sean Noonan in the March 17 Republican primary.
“I am the best candidate for sheriff, but I am still human,” Moore acknowledged when we spoke with him. “I would not do it again that way.”
What happened
Walworth County Sheriff’s Office reports we obtained indicate Moore, his wife and some friends were at the Grand Geneva Resort’s Evolve nightclub early Jan. 1, 2021, when the fracas occurred.
Moore said he was in a bathroom stall when he overheard another man in the restroom say, “There’s a lot of (N-word) here tonight.” He says men later approached him in the bathroom and used the same racial slur.
Walworth sheriff’s reports indicate Moore later confronted a man in the club. A security guard swept in to separate them, and suffered a broken finger in the scuffle, reports state.
Moore told us he doesn’t know how the injury occurred, and denies he struck anyone. The security guard told Walworth deputies he didn’t think Moore meant to break his finger.
Moore was given an ordinance violation ticket, which he didn’t contest, and paid a $365 fine to close the case.
Trauma preparedness
It may feel like bipartisanship on Capitol Hill is long dead, but every once in a while the two sides get together to do something good.
That was the case last week when President Donald Trump signed the Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies (CARE) Act, a bipartisan bill that provides funding for police to obtain trauma kits.
The kits, often modeled after what soldiers carried in Afghanistan and Iraq, typically include items such as pressure bandages, hemostatic dressing, tourniquets and chest seals. Officers will be trained to use them when a civilian or fellow cop suffers a severe injury and time is of the essence.
“Blood loss injuries are too often deadly, especially in rural areas where it can take longer for patients to receive emergency medical care,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a statement. “Now that the bill is signed into law, the bipartisan Improving Police CARE Act will establish standards for trauma kits used by law enforcement, ensuring that our officers have the right tools to respond to injuries immediately and continue to serve our communities.”
It was the snow, man
When DuPage County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of gunfire early Saturday outside a Bensenville-area home, they were told quite a yarn.
The male resident told deputies he opened fire about 4:49 a.m. Saturday after spotting suspected intruders in his house and yard. He grabbed two guns and gave chase, firing at people he saw near a garbage bin and a bench, according to court records.
But after further questioning, the man admitted to deputies he had been using cocaine, and when he does that he becomes paranoid, psychotic and sees things that aren’t there, according to a court petition filed by DuPage prosecutors.
The man ultimately was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.
“In reality, the defendant recalled the one shadow (he shot at) to be a snowman,” the petition states.
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