Ex-Chicago Cop Accused Of Plotting To Kill Federal Witness From Behind Bars

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 22, 2013 9:11PM

Sketch credit: Lothar Speer (via WLS-TV screen grab)

Attorneys for disgraced former Chicago police officer Steven Mandell now know why he was returned to restricted custody last week. Prosecutors charged Mandell with plotting to kill a federal witness from behind the bars of the Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown.

The Sun-Times has the details.

U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu told Judge Amy St. Eve on Thursday that Mandell was returned to the jail’s Segregated Housing Unit after he spent his time in the general population “soliciting the murder of a federal witness.”

A furious Mandell — wearing shackles and an orange jail jump suit — angrily denied the allegation.

He alleged members of the Latin Kings street gang acted as snitches to help the government set him up.

“What I tell inmates at the MCC is utter nonsense — what I say here is the truth,” Mandell said, urging St. Eve to take the allegations with “a pinch of salt.”

“I’m not on oath when talking to the Latin Kings,” he added, insisting he was looking forward to his trial.

Mandell was charged last October with plotting to kidnap, extort, murder and dismember a businessman with former Willow Springs policeman Gary Engel. (Engel committed suicide while in custody last November.) Mandell was also charged in March with plotting to kill another man for money, a plot where he allegedly sought his wife’s assistance in destroying evidence against him, which was why prosecutors sought to place him in the MCC’s Special Housing Unit in the first place.

Judge Amy St. Eve ordered Mandell returned to the jail’s general population after his attorney complained his health had worsened while in restricted confinement. St. Eve told prosecutors to give Mandell’s attorney, Keith Spielfogel, a limited account of the new charges against Mandell.