Pubdate: Thu, 28 Sep 2006
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2006 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: David Heinzmann and Carlos Sadovi, Tribune staff reporters
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States)

STATE TO DROP CASES TIED TO SUSPECT COPS

110 Arrests Linked to 9 City Officers in Robbery Probe 	

Top Cook County prosecutors have ordered their staff to drop any case 
that nine special operations officers had a significant role in 
handling, which could nullify the arrests of 110 people charged in 
gun, drug, burglary and violence cases, according to a memo 
circulated in the Cook County state's attorney's office earlier this month.

In addition to cases handled by four Chicago police officers charged 
with robberies and kidnappings, the memo also directs prosecutors to 
drop cases handled by five other officers in the special operations unit.

Those officers have been stripped of their police powers in the 
investigation but are not charged with a crime.

State's Atty. Richard Devine had earlier said his office planned to 
review whether cases needed to be dropped, and the Sept. 12 memo 
gives clear instructions to drop any case in which the nine officers 
made the arrest, recovered physical evidence, signed a search warrant 
or provided information from an informant that led to the arrest.

Bernard Murray, chief of felony prosecutions for the state's 
attorney's office, said the memo was written to give prosecutors a 
guideline on how to proceed on the cases.

"We made the decision to err on the side of caution. ... We are 
trying to do the right thing," Murray said.

In the cases outlined in the memo, the nine officers were involved in 
the arrests, he said.

"We cannot prove our cases," Murray said. "The cases where the 
defendant was indicted and they were the main officers, we cannot 
sustain the burden of proof."

The memo lists 110 arrests tied to the officers, and in two cases the 
memo notes that the defendants also face murder charges.

One of the murder cases is against Orlando Benamon, charged in a July 
2003 shooting on the West Side. Benamon was charged in that murder 
about the same time that Officer Keith Herrera arrested him in a 
drug-dealing case, prosecutors said.

The two charges have been moving through court proceedings together, 
but Murray said the murder case should not be compromised by the 
special-operations investigation because detectives not connected to 
the arrests of the four officers investigated the slaying.

Prosecutors decided to drop the cases connected to the five officers 
not charged because they doubt they could proceed with officers 
stripped of their authority as witnesses. Those officers could 
eventually be exonerated, Murray said, but "there's no timetable on 
how long those investigations will take," and they can't put the 
prosecutions on hold until they know whether their police witnesses 
are tainted.

The memo lists 32 cases to be dropped under the names of the 
uncharged officers.

Burglary, Battery, Drugs

Most of the cases involve drug-dealing or felony weapons charges or 
both, according to the memo. One of the cases is for burglarizing a 
house of worship, one is for battery that caused "great bodily harm," 
and several are for reckless discharge of a firearm. Most of the 
cases are from this year, but a few go as far back as 2003.

The memo also directs prosecutors to start looking into convictions 
they have already won that are linked to the officers. Prosecutors 
have been directed to contact defense lawyers in those cases so they 
can file motions to review the convictions, Murray said.

The state's attorney's office has made a priority of dropping cases 
in which the defendants are in jail, according to the memo. In cases 
in which defendants are in custody, "please advance, reset and [drop] 
the case immediately," the memo said.

Prosecutors have said in recent weeks that the investigation 
continues and that charges may soon be brought against more officers. 
Earlier this month Officers Jerome Finnigan, Herrera, Carl Suchocki 
and Tom Sherry were all charged with multiple counts of robbing and 
kidnapping drug dealers and ordinary citizens in a pattern of 
misconduct that stretched back to 2002.

False Arrests Alleged

Prosecutors have alleged the men stole hundreds of thousands of 
dollars and falsely arrested many people. Although the Police 
Department had been investigating numerous misconduct claims against 
the men for years, the criminal case against them did not gain 
traction until prosecutors became suspicious because the officers 
consistently failed to show up in court to testify on significant 
drug arrests they had made, officials said.

Authorities said they now believe many of those arrests were bogus, 
and any cases the officers handled are suspect.

The memo links Herrera to 67 cases. Finnigan, accused of being the 
ringleader of the schemes, is linked to 10 cases. Sherry is linked to 
29 cases and Suchocki is linked to three cases. Some cases were 
linked to more than one of the officers. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake