Beating Victim Obrycka Testifies In Abbate Civil Trial

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 30, 2012 2:15PM

Karolina Obrycka, the bartender who was allegedly beaten by former Chicago cop Anthony Abbate in a drunken rage five years ago, took to the stand in Monday in the civil trial where she’s suing the Chicago Police Department, claiming they worked to protect Abbate.

Obrycka testified she suffers from panic attacks as a result of the incident and told the jury about the neck and back pain she suffered after Abbate attacked her. Per the Tribune:

"I remember he told me, 'Nobody tells me what to do,'" Obrycka said, recalling how Abbate reacted when she told him he could not come behind the bar. "I remember him throwing me like a rag doll."

Obrycka said she finished her shift but went to an emergency room to have her injuries treated. She said that, in the weeks after the attack, a fellow bartender who was a friend of Abbate’s said Abbate and another cop threatened to plant drugs on bar staff unless the charges were dropped; a childhood friend of Abbate’s promised to pay her medical bills; and Abbate’s girlfriend called the bar on the evening of the beating and pressed for Obrycka’s last name.

Obrycka agreed to let the video of the incident be released because Abbate hadn’t been arrested for weeks after the incident. “I was scared . . . that he’s a police officer and that nothing further is going to happen that everything is going to be covered up.”