Rockford Police Officer Bradley Lauer will not be criminally charged for his use of force against a 14-year-old Rockford student in 2021. Lauer slammed the Auburn High School student’s head on the floor, fracturing their skull.
Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley found the former school resource officer’s use of force against the high school freshmen was “reasonable.”
Hanley wrote that, based on legal precedent, the student’s traumatic brain injury is irrelevant to the case.
He says to charge the officer with a crime like battery, they’d have to prove two things: one, that Lauer’s “takedown” move was unjustified in the situation; and two, that the move was “likely to cause great bodily harm.”
Through the officer’s report, statements from school staff & video footage of the incident, the state’s attorney says the move was both justified in the context of the situation and unlikely to cause the great bodily harm it is believed to have caused.
A separate, federal Civil Rights lawsuit from the student’s family is still in progress.
