CHAMPAIGN - A Champaign County Circuit Court jury has awarded Tuscola Police Chief Craig Hastings and his wife, Kalee, $2.1 million in damages stemming from severe injuries he sustained in 2004.

The award made Wednesday was against the Preservation & Conservation Association of Champaign County, which the jury determined was liable for 70 percent of the damages or $1,482,617; and the city of Tuscola, which was found liable for the other 30 percent or $635,407.

Because of the preservation association's limited ability to pay the damages, Hastings and his wife will receive less than the total award.

Hastings was injured while setting up a police training exercise on Sept. 30, 2004, in the former North Ward Elementary School. The building since has been demolished.

The preservation association had been salvaging fixtures from the building and had removed a spiral staircase between the first and second floors. Hastings contended in his lawsuit that no warning sign or barricade had been placed on the second-floor door to warn of the staircase removal. As a result, when he opened the door he fell to the first floor, landing on the removed iron stairs of the staircase.

Hastings was airlifted to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, where he spent nine days in intensive care and underwent numerous medical procedures. He suffered fractures to three vertebrae in his back. He also had a broken left clavicle, a bicep tear and a rotator cuff tear, all of which required surgical repair.

Hastings also suffered a skull fracture and temporary traumatic brain injury with contusions, as well as an inner-ear injury that required surgery to repair the small bones in his ear.

Following treatment, Hastings underwent extensive rehabilitation and therapy, made a substantial recovery and returned to work within months. However, he continues to suffer from back pain, ringing in the ear and mild impairment of taste, according to a statement released by his attorneys, Ryan E. Yagoda and Alexander M. Sukhman of the Chicago law firm of Kralovec, Jambois & Schwartz.

The conservation and preservation association has a $1 million liability insurance policy, which has been assigned to Hastings to satisfy the award, said Michael E. Raub, the nonprofit agency's attorney from the Champaign law firm of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen. Hastings will receive that amount, less attorneys' fees and expenses, he said.

Extensive efforts were made prior to the trial to settle the case but Tuscola had a $250,000 worker compensation lien against the association for Hastings' injuries, and the company holding that insurance policy refused to waive the lien so a settlement could be reached, Raub said. An agreement was signed by the parties that Hastings would take the association's insurance policy, regardless of the outcome of the trial, he said.

Tuscola city administrator J. Drew Hoel said the city is consulting its attorneys about the next step to take in the face of the judgment against it. He declined to discuss how that award might be satisfied but indicated there were alternatives to do so.

"We are happy for Craig with the verdict against the Preservation & Conservation Association of Champaign County for the horrible injuries and suffering he endured," Hoel said. "But we were disappointed the jury allocated some of the blame to the city of Tuscola."

Hastings could not sue the city under the state's worker compensation laws.

Yagoda said the preservation and conservation association filed a third-party claim against the city, alleging Tuscola had notice of the hazardous condition in the old school and should have communicated the nature of the hazard to its employees. The association also claimed the city should have informed it about the ongoing activities, such as the police training, occurring in the closed school.

The insurance policy will cover the damages to the extent possible, Yagoda said. Hastings did not want to shut down the nonprofit association with his lawsuit, he said.

The association has existed since 1981. It uses trained volunteers to salvage fixtures and architectural features from old buildings that have been abandoned and sells them at a warehouse in Champaign.

Ron Ingram can be reached at ringram@herald-review.com or 421-7973.