Police Misconduct Investigator Says Chicago Cops Threatened And Falsely Arrested Him

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Sep 24, 2015 4:57PM

A man who helps the city investigate police misconduct allegations experienced a brutal incident of police misconduct himself earlier this year, according to a lawsuit recently filed in federal court.

George Roberts, 51—an investigator for the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), which reviews police misconduct allegations, shootings by police and other policing matters in Chicago—claims in a lawsuit against the city last week that he was falsely arrested on Jan. 1, threatened with a gun and slammed to the ground so violently by a Chicago police officer that he lost control of his bowels.

The lawsuit comes amid growing local and national concerns over police misconduct and oversight over city police forces.

The lawsuit says the arrest took place in the early morning on New Years Day in the 1500 block of East 85th Place, when Roberts was pulled over while driving his car a block away from his home. Roberts says he was stopped for a minor traffic violation, and when he got out of his car officers pushed him to the ground and shouted, "Don't make me fucking shoot you."

"The aforementioned conduct was wholly unnecessary and unreasonable, as [Roberts] was not threatening, resisting or otherwise failing to comply with the [officers'] orders at this point or at any point during the stop," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit claims the officers realized Roberts worked for IPRA while searching his wallet, and then turned off the recording equipment in the police car that is meant to record police behavior during arrests and other interactions with the public. The lawsuit says Roberts did not discover until much later that the dash camera had not been recording the incident.

According to police records, Roberts told police he had had two drinks—both rum and coke—before driving home from a bar, and he refused to undergo a field sobriety test. At that point, he was placed under arrest and placed in the back of the squad car.

The police report said Roberts "soiled himself" in the back of the squad car, according to the Tribune. The lawsuit says he was thrown "to the ground so violently [by the police officers,] he lost control of his bowels." The lawsuit, which can be read here, details other disturbing aspects of the arrest:

"When the [officers] turned off the dash camera, things got worse for [Roberts]. Initially, [Roberts], who was approximately 315 pounds at the time, was placed in a single set of handcuffs that were clearly too tight. [He] pleaded with [the officers] to loosen the handcuffs or use multiple pairs because of his size...When [Roberts] again complained about the extreme discomfort he was feeling due to the continually tightening handcuffs, one [officer] leaned into the squad car and said something to the effect of, 'What are you going to tell me next, you can't breathe?'

... Eventually, [the officers], apparently annoyed by [Roberts] numerous complaints of discomfort, removed him from the squad car. [Roberts] was then taken to the ground again so violently he lost control of his bowels. He was eventually taken back to the District 4 lockup where he remained in his soiled clothes overnight."

Roberts' lawsuit claims he asked to speak to a supervisor multiple times while in lockup but his requests were denied.

Roberts, who makes $93,000 a year at IPRA, according to the Tribune, was suspended from his job following the arrest, but was later allowed to return to work after being found not guilty of DUI charges.

The lawsuit says Roberts' arrest records filled out by police say there was no video recorded of the incident, but according to the suit, "a significant portion of [Roberts] driving was captured on the dashboard camera before it was turned off."