Post by bingbong on Sept 29, 2007 11:54:44 GMT 12
*
*
Story Highlights
* Lawyer: From '02-'04, only 18 of 10,000 complaints got "meaningful" results
* One victim says officer attacked when she refused to sign blank incident report
* Victim's lawyer: Chicago Police Dept. "doesn't do a good job of policing itself"
* Chicago police refused CNN's interview requests
Chicago's finest under fire for brutality
From Randi Kaye and Ismael Estrada
CNN
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Robin Petrovic, a college English teacher, was out dancing at a popular Chicago nightclub, the "Funky Buddha Lounge," when she got into an altercation with the bouncer and called police for help.
Petrovic
Robin Petrovic alleges that she sustained extensive injuries after a Chicago cop beat her outside a popular nightclub.
Click to view previous image
1 of 3
Click to view next image
But according to Petrovic, the officer who showed up -- James Chevas, a 12-year veteran -- turned on her when she refused to sign a blank incident report and tried to write down his badge number.
"He picked me up and threw me face down into the ground. And since my hands were handcuffed behind my back, I couldn't break my fall at all, so I just landed on my face," she told CNN.
Petrovic is one of thousands of ordinary people who every year accuse Chicago police of abuse. Few complaints result in disciplinary action. Video Woman alleges police brutality »
"The Chicago Police Department doesn't do a good job of policing itself," Jon Loevy, Petrovic's attorney, said. "For the small minority of police officers, who are inclined to violence for whatever reason and abuses, there is no check, there is no deterrence, because the city does not investigate and punish police abuses."
Between 2002 and 2004, for example, more than 10,000 complaints -- many of them involving brutality and assault -- were filed against Chicago police officers.
Yet only 18 of them resulted in any meaningful disciplinary action, according to Craig Futterman, a lawyer who uncovered these statistics while researching a client's claim.
Futterman's client, Diane Bond, sued the city of Chicago and a handful of officers, accusing them of beating and sexually abusing her.
"[The officer] took me in the bathroom, locked the door, had me unfasten my bra, then he had me shake my bra, he had me pull my pants down stick my hand in my panties and do like this while he looked on," Bond said.
The city settled Bond's case for $150,000, but never admitted any wrongdoing. The officers denied ever meeting her. None of them was reprimanded. In fact, two have been promoted.
For years, community activists have accused the Office of Professional Standards -- the investigative unit within the Chicago Police Department that examines brutality complaints -- of poor oversight.
In July, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley appointed Ilana Rosenzweig to run the office and also took direct control of it.
In an interview with CNN, Daley said Chicago is not unique in its struggle against police brutality.
"There is police brutality throughout the country. It's not just an exception to Chicago, and we take appropriate steps to thoroughly investigate it," Daley said.
Daley, meanwhile, won a temporary court order to keep the names of the alleged worst offenders secret.
"Because it's only [an] investigation, it's appropriate and you should not name them publicly," Daley told CNN. "Because they are out there doing their job, there's complaints and there will be complaints."
After her run-in with Chevas outside the Funky Buddha Lounge, Petrovic filed a complaint with the Office of Professional Standards, claiming extensive injuries.
Don't Miss
* Chicago cop: One punch got me five years
"I had two black eyes. One of my ears was completely black and blue," she told CNN. "My face was swollen. I was bruised under my chin. I had bruising on my arms and my legs, lacerations all over my back, and bruising in my genital area."
Chevas denied Petrovic's claims and said she attacked him. Petrovic was arrested that night and charged with aggravated battery, but the charges were later dropped.
In his 12 years with the Chicago Police Department, Chevas had never been disciplined, despite nearly 50 brutality complaints against him, according to Petrovic's lawyer.
Chevas wound up resigning from the force after being caught on tape using credit cards stolen from a suspect in police custody. He was sentenced to 30 months probation.
advertisement
Six months after filing her complaint with the standards office, Petrovic received a letter saying the office had conducted a "thorough investigation" and determined her complaint was "unfounded." Now, Petrovic is suing Chevas and the city of Chicago over the incident.
"In a properly functioning police department, there would be more of a system of discipline, more of a system of punishment, so that an officer would know that if someone did something wrong someone would actually care," Loevy said. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend
www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/27/police.complaints/index.html
Chicago cop: One punch got me five years
Fri September 28, 2007
* Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, is heading to prison this November
* He says he was acting in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard
* Doctors testified Gotthard appeared as though he had been stomped, kicked
* Mette, currently on unpaid leave, is appealing the court's decision
By David Mattingly and Katherine Wojtecki
CNN
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Mike Mette has been a Chicago police officer for almost four years. But now, as a result of a fistfight one night in Dubuque, Iowa, he is a convicted felon.
art.chicago.cop.cnn.jpg
Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, says he acted in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque.
Mette has been sentenced to almost five years in prison after Dubuque County Judge Monica Ackley found him guilty of assault causing serious injury. Mette says he's been wronged.
"I was arrested for self-defense ... I was defending myself," he said.
Mette's saga started in October 2005 after a night of drinking in Dubuque, where he was visiting his brother Mark. After the bars closed, Mette and his crew made their way to an after-hours party thrown by Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque.
According to court documents, Mette and his friends entered the house party, but decided to leave without paying the required $5 entry fee when they saw the room was mostly empty. Gotthard became angry, and with the help of his roommate, began chasing Mette down the street. Gotthard claims someone in Mette's group had stolen his cell phone and he wanted it back. Exactly what happened to the cell phone is still unclear.
The altercation continued a block and a half down the street and eventually ended up in front of the house of Mette's brother. Video Fight could land cop in prison »
"That's when Mr. Gotthard hit me. He hit me with two fists like this, straight into the chest," Mette said. "He was yelling about his cell phone, telling me if he didn't get his cell phone back he was going to beat the crap out of me. He hit me several more times and then I pushed him away from me. It wasn't until after the third time is when he came back at me again and that is when I struck him."
When police arrived, they found Gotthard lying on the ground with bruises and lacerations on his face, cheek, nose, chin and forehead. Mette, who had blood on his shirt and whose knuckle was bruised and cut, was arrested and charged with a felony.
"[Gotthard] had bruises on the side of his neck, his arms, his elbow, his shoulders, on his back, that were simply not consistent with Mr. Mette's version that he only struck him once," said Assistant County Attorney Tim Gallagher.
Dubuque doctors testified the injuries were consistent with someone who had been stomped and kicked. But a doctor testifying for Mette's defense rejected the Dubuque findings. He said all those injuries could have come from Mette's single punch and the impact from falling on the sidewalk.
Gallagher said the decision to prosecute Mette was a tough one.
"It's never an easy situation when someone is sentenced to prison, particularly when it's a police officer that we have to rely on," he said. "But we can't allow individuals to be given certain privileges because of their occupation."
The case spawned a battle between newspaper columnists in Chicago and Dubuque.
"Mette played baseball in college. But what's happening to him isn't about Iowa baseball mythology. It doesn't smell of corn. It stinks of the pig barn," wrote Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass. He chalks the judge's decision up to small town politics.
advertisement
In a reply, a columnist for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald wrote that Kass is a "legendary muckraker" who is "training his scorn" on Ackley, the judge.
Mette is currently on unpaid leave from the Chicago Police Department and is appealing his case. He will begin serving his five-year sentence in November.
www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/28/chicago.cop/index.html
*
Story Highlights
* Lawyer: From '02-'04, only 18 of 10,000 complaints got "meaningful" results
* One victim says officer attacked when she refused to sign blank incident report
* Victim's lawyer: Chicago Police Dept. "doesn't do a good job of policing itself"
* Chicago police refused CNN's interview requests
Chicago's finest under fire for brutality
From Randi Kaye and Ismael Estrada
CNN
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Robin Petrovic, a college English teacher, was out dancing at a popular Chicago nightclub, the "Funky Buddha Lounge," when she got into an altercation with the bouncer and called police for help.
Petrovic
Robin Petrovic alleges that she sustained extensive injuries after a Chicago cop beat her outside a popular nightclub.
Click to view previous image
1 of 3
Click to view next image
But according to Petrovic, the officer who showed up -- James Chevas, a 12-year veteran -- turned on her when she refused to sign a blank incident report and tried to write down his badge number.
"He picked me up and threw me face down into the ground. And since my hands were handcuffed behind my back, I couldn't break my fall at all, so I just landed on my face," she told CNN.
Petrovic is one of thousands of ordinary people who every year accuse Chicago police of abuse. Few complaints result in disciplinary action. Video Woman alleges police brutality »
"The Chicago Police Department doesn't do a good job of policing itself," Jon Loevy, Petrovic's attorney, said. "For the small minority of police officers, who are inclined to violence for whatever reason and abuses, there is no check, there is no deterrence, because the city does not investigate and punish police abuses."
Between 2002 and 2004, for example, more than 10,000 complaints -- many of them involving brutality and assault -- were filed against Chicago police officers.
Yet only 18 of them resulted in any meaningful disciplinary action, according to Craig Futterman, a lawyer who uncovered these statistics while researching a client's claim.
Futterman's client, Diane Bond, sued the city of Chicago and a handful of officers, accusing them of beating and sexually abusing her.
"[The officer] took me in the bathroom, locked the door, had me unfasten my bra, then he had me shake my bra, he had me pull my pants down stick my hand in my panties and do like this while he looked on," Bond said.
The city settled Bond's case for $150,000, but never admitted any wrongdoing. The officers denied ever meeting her. None of them was reprimanded. In fact, two have been promoted.
For years, community activists have accused the Office of Professional Standards -- the investigative unit within the Chicago Police Department that examines brutality complaints -- of poor oversight.
In July, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley appointed Ilana Rosenzweig to run the office and also took direct control of it.
In an interview with CNN, Daley said Chicago is not unique in its struggle against police brutality.
"There is police brutality throughout the country. It's not just an exception to Chicago, and we take appropriate steps to thoroughly investigate it," Daley said.
Daley, meanwhile, won a temporary court order to keep the names of the alleged worst offenders secret.
"Because it's only [an] investigation, it's appropriate and you should not name them publicly," Daley told CNN. "Because they are out there doing their job, there's complaints and there will be complaints."
After her run-in with Chevas outside the Funky Buddha Lounge, Petrovic filed a complaint with the Office of Professional Standards, claiming extensive injuries.
Don't Miss
* Chicago cop: One punch got me five years
"I had two black eyes. One of my ears was completely black and blue," she told CNN. "My face was swollen. I was bruised under my chin. I had bruising on my arms and my legs, lacerations all over my back, and bruising in my genital area."
Chevas denied Petrovic's claims and said she attacked him. Petrovic was arrested that night and charged with aggravated battery, but the charges were later dropped.
In his 12 years with the Chicago Police Department, Chevas had never been disciplined, despite nearly 50 brutality complaints against him, according to Petrovic's lawyer.
Chevas wound up resigning from the force after being caught on tape using credit cards stolen from a suspect in police custody. He was sentenced to 30 months probation.
advertisement
Six months after filing her complaint with the standards office, Petrovic received a letter saying the office had conducted a "thorough investigation" and determined her complaint was "unfounded." Now, Petrovic is suing Chevas and the city of Chicago over the incident.
"In a properly functioning police department, there would be more of a system of discipline, more of a system of punishment, so that an officer would know that if someone did something wrong someone would actually care," Loevy said. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend
www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/27/police.complaints/index.html
Chicago cop: One punch got me five years
Fri September 28, 2007
* Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, is heading to prison this November
* He says he was acting in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard
* Doctors testified Gotthard appeared as though he had been stomped, kicked
* Mette, currently on unpaid leave, is appealing the court's decision
By David Mattingly and Katherine Wojtecki
CNN
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Mike Mette has been a Chicago police officer for almost four years. But now, as a result of a fistfight one night in Dubuque, Iowa, he is a convicted felon.
art.chicago.cop.cnn.jpg
Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, says he acted in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque.
Mette has been sentenced to almost five years in prison after Dubuque County Judge Monica Ackley found him guilty of assault causing serious injury. Mette says he's been wronged.
"I was arrested for self-defense ... I was defending myself," he said.
Mette's saga started in October 2005 after a night of drinking in Dubuque, where he was visiting his brother Mark. After the bars closed, Mette and his crew made their way to an after-hours party thrown by Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque.
According to court documents, Mette and his friends entered the house party, but decided to leave without paying the required $5 entry fee when they saw the room was mostly empty. Gotthard became angry, and with the help of his roommate, began chasing Mette down the street. Gotthard claims someone in Mette's group had stolen his cell phone and he wanted it back. Exactly what happened to the cell phone is still unclear.
The altercation continued a block and a half down the street and eventually ended up in front of the house of Mette's brother. Video Fight could land cop in prison »
"That's when Mr. Gotthard hit me. He hit me with two fists like this, straight into the chest," Mette said. "He was yelling about his cell phone, telling me if he didn't get his cell phone back he was going to beat the crap out of me. He hit me several more times and then I pushed him away from me. It wasn't until after the third time is when he came back at me again and that is when I struck him."
When police arrived, they found Gotthard lying on the ground with bruises and lacerations on his face, cheek, nose, chin and forehead. Mette, who had blood on his shirt and whose knuckle was bruised and cut, was arrested and charged with a felony.
"[Gotthard] had bruises on the side of his neck, his arms, his elbow, his shoulders, on his back, that were simply not consistent with Mr. Mette's version that he only struck him once," said Assistant County Attorney Tim Gallagher.
Dubuque doctors testified the injuries were consistent with someone who had been stomped and kicked. But a doctor testifying for Mette's defense rejected the Dubuque findings. He said all those injuries could have come from Mette's single punch and the impact from falling on the sidewalk.
Gallagher said the decision to prosecute Mette was a tough one.
"It's never an easy situation when someone is sentenced to prison, particularly when it's a police officer that we have to rely on," he said. "But we can't allow individuals to be given certain privileges because of their occupation."
The case spawned a battle between newspaper columnists in Chicago and Dubuque.
"Mette played baseball in college. But what's happening to him isn't about Iowa baseball mythology. It doesn't smell of corn. It stinks of the pig barn," wrote Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass. He chalks the judge's decision up to small town politics.
advertisement
In a reply, a columnist for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald wrote that Kass is a "legendary muckraker" who is "training his scorn" on Ackley, the judge.
Mette is currently on unpaid leave from the Chicago Police Department and is appealing his case. He will begin serving his five-year sentence in November.
www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/28/chicago.cop/index.html