Civil Rights Charges Brought Up Against Former SOS Officers

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 8, 2011 1:41PM

Even though he's been in jail for nearly four years, it looks as though former Chicago Police Department Special Operations Section officer Jerome Finnigan may finally be sentenced to actual prison sentence. Finnigan and three other officers were indicted on civil rights charges yesterday related to their actions while serving on the SOS. All four are expected to plead guilty.

Finnigan and Keith Hererra were charged with felony counts of violating the civil rights of individuals they stopped at random traffic stops from and later robbed. These are charges brought against the two at the state level that were later dismissed. Misdemeanor civil rights charges were made against Eric Olsen, who is on desk duty with the Police Department, and Stephen DelBosque.

The complaint against Finnigan details five accounts where he and other officers, including Hererra in three cases, stopped individuals and stole $600,000 from them or conducted unlawful drug searches between 2004 and 2005; one of those searches netted Finnigan $450,000.

Finnigan is currently housed at the Downtown Correctional Center, where his behavior has apparently not improved, still waiting to to go to trial for plotting the murder of a fellow officer he beleived was testifying against him.