For The Final Time, No Shakedown

A small town president-slash-promoter has been denied for the second and, apparently, final time in his attempt to prove he was forced to hire off-duty sheriff’s deputies for his events.

In a seven-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Kapala told promoter H. Michael Stanard he had failed to show how a sheriff’s department violated his rights, according to Chicago’s Daily Herald.

Stanard, village president of Greenwood, Ill., held concerts at the city’s Galt Airport, including a 2005 Hurricane Katrina benefit concert. He filed a federal suit against McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren and about 20 sheriff’s employees in 2007, seeking $2 million from the county.

Standard claimed security professionals were available to work for lesser works but he was strong-armed into going with the deputies.

The 28-count lawsuit claims Nygren “foisted his deputies on plaintiffs and event organizers and displaced said private security by arbitrarily and capriciously specifying the number of his off-duty deputies to replace them.”

Nygren told the Chicago Tribune it was the “most venomous, ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard” and promised to prevail.

The department did last year when Kapala dismissed Stanard’s lawsuit, saying in his ruling that it failed to meet legal standards and “contained several questionable claims.” He gave Stanard’s attorney an opportunity to clear up the allegations and refile the suit, according to the Daily Herald.

The Sheriff explained to the Tribune that although he didn’t force Stanard to use his deputies, other concert promoters often hire off-duty officers at a rate of $40 per hour because they have something private security doesn’t – police powers.