Wednesday Journal crime reporter Bill Dwyer just can’t escape the crime beat, even when he’s indisposed – as in lying on an emergency room gurney last Friday morning, hooked up to a heart monitor, with nurses drawing blood and feeding him nitroglycerin.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Brainerd, 24, of Berwyn, was in the next ER bed, waking up with a hangover. Unlike our reporter, who was suffering from chest pain, Brainerd was cuffed to his bed with several Oak Park cops standing around him.
According to police, Brainerd was brought to the ER around 3 a.m. Friday morning, extremely intoxicated. Police say hospital staff reported he became belligerent and combative with them, and allegedly broke a security staffer’s nose before being physically restrained.
If his at-times-incoherent banter with police is to be believed, Brainerd didn’t much recall the previous night’s events, even where he was drinking, just somewhere “on Roosevelt Road near Harlem.” He mumbled something about doubting he’d hurt anyone and that he might want to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get details.
But he managed to injure both hands at some point Thursday night. Our reporter watched as he was wheeled out Friday afternoon under police escort for x-rays, which reportedly showed no fractures, just bruising.
“Merry Christmas to me,” Brainerd said dispiritedly to the officers as reality sank in. Whatever sort of Christmas Brainerd does have, he’ll spend it in Cook County Jail, where he’s being held on No Bond status, awaiting a Dec. 28 court date.
As for Dwyer, the good news is his heart is functioning just fine, according a full assessment, including a stress test and heart ultrasound. The bad news is he still has lingering chest pain, caused most likely by acid reflux and a burned esophagus. That will require he phase out coffee, avoid chocolate, limit alcohol and lose some weight.
Merry Christmas to him.
There was something else mentioned, perhaps about quitting those twice weekly cigars, but in all the excitement, he can’t quite recall.
Happy New Year’s resolutions.