Last year, the Chicago Police Department announced what it said was a multi-year effort to reform itself in the wake of a 2014 video that showed a white cop shooting a black teenager 16 times. Last year, the officer was found guilty of second-degree murder. CPD said the reform would result in improved policing and public accountability.
Yet less than two week ago, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was fired for what Mayor Lori Lightfoot described as “ethical lapses.”
If you drive straight through the 2,000-mile journey from Chicago to Los Angeles suburb Huntington Beach, you will get there in about 32 hours. The city famous for its sandy beach and excellent surfing is home to a 64-year-old man who was recently pulled over in Chicago’s southwest neighbor, Joliet – a city famous for its prison, the Blues Brothers and a pair of casinos.
According to news reports, the California man was driving an RV on Interstate 80 when he was apparently pulled over for a windshield-wiper violation (he was reportedly using his wipers without having the headlights on). Will County sheriff’s deputies searched the RV and reported finding 190 pounds of marijuana and six grams of methamphetamine. The driver was charged with possession of more than 5,000 grams of cannabis and manufacturing or delivering more than 5,000 grams of cannabis.
The numbers for City Colleges of Chicago are impressive: seven community colleges, six satellite campuses, 4,000 instructors and more than 80,000 students across the metro. Another figure has been making headlines for the system, however: a former vice-chancellor and seven others are facing federal fraud charges in what officials call a $350,000 kickback scheme.
The eight people indicted were allegedly involved in a plan that awarded contracts to firms tied to the former vice chancellor’s associates and relatives.
Prosecutors and police allege that a Chicago woman helped carry out the killing of her on-again, off-again boyfriend in his South Side apartment this past summer. They claim that she plotted to rob the 30-year-old of marijuana in his Park Manor home – a robbery that ended in his fatal shooting late in July.
Eupora Jackson, 27, of Englewood, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Eric Hamilton.
There are several ways in which federal criminal investigations can come to an end. Many times the investigations end without any charges being filed, while others end with an indictment. However, the recent resolution of a federal criminal fraud investigation in Illinois illustrates another possibility.
Outcome Health, a Chicago-based digital health care ad company and its defense attorneys negotiated a settlement in which the firm agreed to pay $70 million to resolve a Department of Justice investigation. The company acknowledges that from 2012 to 2017 former employees fraudulently sold advertisements to customers.
The political landscapes in Chicago and in the Illinois General Assembly have undergone rapid changes in the past few days. State Rep. Luis Arroyo, from Chicago’s West Side, was arrested and charged with bribery by federal prosecutors on Monday of last week. Two days later, Arroyo resigned.
Prosecutors claim the former Third District representative tried to bribe a state senator with monthly $2,500 payments in exchange for support for legislation to legalize “sweepstakes” gambling. “This is the jackpot,” Arroyo allegedly said to the senator as he handed over the first check.
Previously we have written about a pair of Chicago police officers who were arrested and charged with stealing drugs and cash. Sergeant Xavier Elizondo and Officer David Salgado were recently found guilty by jurors on all charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and theft.
Their case makes it clear again why people who are arrested should not lose hope. Unfortunately, some police officers are themselves corrupt and see a profit in framing people on drug-trafficking charges and other allegations.
Southwest suburb Oak Lawn placed its city manager on administrative leave days after a hit-and-run crash in which he was apparently the driver. Village Manager Larry Deetjen is accused in a hit-and-run that left a 48-year-old man with critical injuries.
The Oak Lawn Village Board placed Deetjen on paid leave pending the outcome of a police investigation in neighboring Chicago Ridge. The victim is from Worth, a village immediately southwest of Chicago Ridge.
Lake Michigan’s waves lap at one of the borders of Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood. According to police, one end of an illegal drug pipeline is there in one of the city’s better-known communities and the other end is in Texas.
Ten people have been arrested on federal drug charges in “Operation Grapevine,” an investigation of the pipeline, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois said. Law enforcement officials said 14 kilos of cocaine and more than a dozen guns were seized in a raid on a Kenwood home.
After the recent revelations in video obtained from Chicago police officer body cameras, is it any wonder that many city residents doubt the word of cops? According to the recordings, Chicago police officers can be heard breaking through the door of a family’s home and then continuing their search – even though after they realized they had entered the wrong residence.
According to a CBS news report, “Chicago Police Officer Joe Cappello had a search warrant to raid a drug offender’s home, but he didn’t make sure he was hitting the right place.” This is just one of many wrong-location police raids that casts doubt on the validity of similar raids that end in arrests on drug-related charges.
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Darryl A. Goldberg
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