A 31-year-old man received an additional charge of resisting a peace officer with injuries after rising frustration with charging his phone led to a takedown by Henry County Sheriff’s Deputies, in which two Kewanee police officers lent a hand. The incident occurred inside a courtroom at the Henry County Courthouse on Monday.
Austin Morrison, Moline, had already appeared in Henry County Circuit Court for a preliminary hearing on charges of domestic battery, aggravated domestic battery and battery. Following his hearing, Morrison was seen being held by his arms and escorted by two sheriff’s deputies back into courtroom 3 and from there, the situation escalated when Morrison seemed to become frustrated that he couldn’t get his phone charger to charge his device.
When the deputies attempted to take him into custody for the domestic battery charge, a clearly aggravated Morrison cursed and whipped his charger, sending the cord flying into the air, at which point a deputy attempted to restrain him.
When the man protested and appeared to resist, a second deputy stepped in, before the incident led to a clearing of the bench by two members of the Kewanee Police Department, who were in the courtroom that day to testify in a 2 p.m. preliminary hearing. Detective Trey Kazubowski and Officer Jacob Lang sprang into action, assisting the deputies in bringing Morrison face down onto one of the courtroom’s benches.
After a struggle, Morrison was eventually handcuffed and taken into custody. Henry County State’s Attorney Catherine Runty said he will be charged with the additional charge of resisting. The judge, Colby Hathaway, was not present in the courtroom at the time of the incident.
Both Kewanee officers reported bumping their heads together pretty hard while handcuffing Morrison but said they were fine.
Morrison’s preliminary hearing was continued until April 22.
