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Abbate Civil Trial Day 2: Officer Questioned On Missing Info On Police Report

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 24, 2012 6:20PM

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Sketch credit: L.D. Chuckman
Former Chicago cop Anthony Abbate dug himself a deeper hole Tuesday during a second day of testimony in the civil trial stemming from his infamous 2007 beating of bartender Karolina Obrycka.

Abbate testified Monday he had little recollection of the incident that eventually got him fired from the Police Department. On Tuesday Abbate called more than a dozen phone calls he made to a fellow police officer after the incident a severe case of “drunk dialing” and that he didn’t ask for help in getting out of trouble following his beating of Obrycka.

Obrycka’s attorneys are arguing that Abbate escaped harsher punishment due to a “code of silence” within the Department that serves to protect officers who get into trouble on and off duty. Another cop found himself being tripped up during testimony Tuesday. According to both the Tribune and the Sun-Times, officer Peter Masheimer couldn’t explain how information given to him by Obrycka regarding Abbate didn’t wind up on the police report of the incident.

Obrycka identified her attacker as “Tony,” spelled his last name as she perceived it to be spelled, and told Masheimer the incident was recorded by security cameras in the Northwest side bar where she worked.

Masheimer said he didn’t list Abbate’s name or the security camera information because it was “speculation and assumption.”

Abbate, meanwhile, testified he intended to get completely wasted the day of the attack because his dog had died that day and recalled attacking a friend at another bar before the incident with Obrycka.