CeaseFire Director Tio Hardiman Charged With Domestic Battery

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 31, 2013 9:50PM

Tio Hardiman, the director of CeaseFire Illinois best known for creating the Violence Interrupter program that became the subject of the critically acclaimed film The Interrupters, was arrested Friday morning on domestic violence charges in suburban Hillside.

According to CBS 2 Hardiman’s wife, Alison, arrived at the Hillside police station and told officers she and Hardiman got into an argument that became physical and showed them bruises. Police went to Hardiman’s home and arrested him. She refused medical treatment.

“They had probable cause to make an arrest, and Mr. Hardiman was placed into custody for domestic battery,” said Hillside Police Chief Joseph Lukaszek.

This isn’t Hardiman’s first domestic battery charge. He pleaded guilty to a 1999 charge and was sentenced to a year of court supervision.

Hardiman, who grew up in Henry Horner Homes, created CeaseFire as a means to reduce gang violence in inner city neighborhoods through intervention and negotiation. The organization received a $1 million grant from the city last year to work with the Police Department in fighting violent crime in high-risk neighborhoods. That initiative has not produced the expected results so far, since CeaseFire and the Police Department haven’t developed a level of trust, and CPD is unable to assure the group its workers would not act as police informants.