Mother of beating victim watches deputy's case unfold: Black Man Hogtied, Beaten into Vegatative State by Shelby County Police

Pat Brunson-Ware's vigil began as one night of grieving. It has stretched into 17 years of hope with her lawyers' words echoing in her mind.

"The lawyers who fought the case called it a 'fate worse than death,' " says Brunson-Ware, mother of Bert Brunson. He was 22 when arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol in 1991.

Two sheriff's deputies, including rookie deputy Chris M. Jones, stopped their cruiser at a service station near Knight-Arnold and Mendenhall while taking Brunson to jail. The officers said they were letting Brunson use the restroom when he tried to take away one of their guns and escape. Two other deputies were soon involved.

In the seconds that followed, Brunson was struck in the head with nightsticks, hog-tied and placed on his stomach in the back seat of a cruiser, says his mother and one of her attorneys, Andy Clark. Clark was soon involved in his first civil rights lawsuit. It accused the sheriff's deputies and the county of using unnecessary and unconstitutional force in an arrest that all but stole the life of Brunson-Ware's only son.

The oxygen supply to his brain was cut off, leaving him in what his mother says is a persistent vegetative state.

All of those memories flooded back for her a week ago when she was walking through her home and heard a TV newscast in the background. The name "Chris Jones" pierced her ears. He was charged with murder in connection with two shootings at the Windjammer club. A customer was critically injured, and disc jockey Donald Munsey died trying to stop Jones from shooting another customer.

"It wasn't something I could have anticipated," she said. "It's been 17 years."

Even if it wasn't a pattern of violence, Brunson-Ware did know one thing. "With my son, the officers were relieved of duty with pay. This man is going to do time this time."

It wasn't without a sense of satisfaction that she heard the news. "I have asked the Lord not to let my cup be bitter. All I know is that vengeance is not mine."

Her concern is still for her son.

"I was told he wouldn't make it through the night," she says, turning Tuesday to fluff a pillow and speak gently to her son, now 38. "I still miss him," says Brunson-Ware.

Not everyone is certain that he understands or is aware. That's the fate her lawyers described as worse than death, a kind of limbo in which even his mother wonders, but still hopes.

"I will still have hope as long as the Lord gives me breath. What I ask is that the Lord let his spirit hear my spirit," says Brunson-Ware.

Her lawsuit, claiming a violation of civil rights, was settled in 1994 before it went to trial for $3.5 million, the biggest judgment yet involving law enforcement officers in Memphis or Shelby County. Despite the judgment, Brunson-Ware, 56, continued to work as a U.S. Postal Service training technician. She said she clung to the hope her son might outlive her. If he did -- and if he revived from his vegetative state -- he would need the settlement money to live.

It's a hope she says was denied to the family of Donald Munsey.

"I've lost my son in a way, but he's still warm. I can touch him and hold him. Their loved one is in the ground." [MORE]