www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1055846,CST-NWS-beat15.article Cop can't be fired for wheelchair beating
COURT RULING | Judge upholds Police Board's decision to suspend him
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter/fmain@suntimes.com
[video in the link]
Cop can't be fired for wheelchair beating
The cops can't fire one of their own for beating a man shackled to a wheelchair.
That's what a Cook County judge said in a ruling sure to rankle Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis -- and please many in the rank and file.
In 2005, Officer William Cozzi was captured on a hospital surveillance camera beating Randle Miles about 10 times. Miles, then 60, was a drunk and unruly stabbing victim.
Cozzi, 51, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in state court and got 18 months' probation. The department asked the Chicago Police Board to fire him, but the civilian disciplinary panel decided instead to suspend him last October. The department filed an appeal the following month.
On Friday, Judge William Maki ruled that the department failed to show that the board was "arbitrary and unreasonable" in suspending Cozzi.
Weis -- a former FBI supervisor hired as superintendent in November -- learned of the Cozzi beating in January after the Sun-Times posted the video with an online story. The newspaper obtained the video through the Freedom of Information Act.
At the time, Weis called the officer's actions "deplorable" and vowed to "review the facts of the case before taking further action." He wound up contacting federal authorities, who obtained a civil rights indictment against Cozzi the day before he was supposed to return to duty in April.
Cozzi remains on an unpaid suspension because of the federal case. In court papers, Cozzi is calling the federal case a "vindictive prosecution" because he already had been convicted of state charges.
The federal prosecution angered many officers, said Mark Donahue, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.
"It drastically impacted morale," Donahue said. "The feeling was, 'if he [Weis] could do this to one individual based on the limited knowledge that he had, what do the rest of us have to look forward to in the future?' "
Even though Friday's court ruling doesn't return Cozzi to his job, he was pleased, said his attorney, William Fahy.
"This is an officer who had a stellar career for 13 years without any disciplinary history," Fahy said. "From the very beginning, he owned up for what he did and was remorseful for his actions. The Police Board had to balance his stellar law enforcement career against the wrongdoing."
In 2005, two other officers also allegedly beat citizens as security cameras rolled. In February, the police board fired Officer Alexandra Martinez for slamming a female shoplifter's head against a wall at a JCPenney store. About two weeks ago, the department asked the police board to fire Officer Larry Guy Jr., who is accused of punching a handcuffed shoplifting suspect at a Target store. The case is pending.
Contributing: Fran Spielman
