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The leadership baton was passed Thursday night at the Chicago Police Board’s monthly meeting as a protracted fight over discipline for Chicago police officers has called the board’s future into question.
And as that new era began, the board announced a forthcoming evidentiary hearing that stems from a notorious, nearly 20-year-old misconduct case — that of disgraced Sgt. Ronald Watts.
Outgoing board President Ghian Foreman arrived at the city’s public safety headquarters early, as did his successor, Kyle Cooper. Minutes before the meeting began, Foreman bypassed his usual seat at the board table and pulled out the chair he used before he was named president.
“It’s a full-circle moment,” Cooper told a smiling Foreman. The nine-person board still has three pending vacancies, and Cooper said Foreman agreed to continue serving on the board so it reaches a voting quorum.
“There isn’t a room I’ve been in with him where I haven’t seen members of the public or elected officials come up to him and thank him for his dedicated service to the city and I can only hope to follow in his footsteps because he put the board on the right direction,” Cooper later told those in attendance.
Afternoon Briefing
Cooper’s first meeting was an active one.
Paula Wolff, the board’s vice president, announced that four officers would face evidentiary hearings stemming from alleged misconduct committed under Watts when he was a tactical lieutenant in the now-demolished Ida B. Wells housing complex in Bronzeville.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said each of the four officers — Robert Gonzalez, Manuel Leano, Brian Bolton and Douglas Nichols — should be fired. In its March 2023 response, the CPD, led at the time by Interim Superintendent Eric Carter, disagreed and called for lighter discipline.
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Mareilé Cusack, another board member, announced another evidentiary hearing was needed for Lt. Wilfredo Roman, who previously faced criminal charges for allegedly shoving his flashlight into the buttocks of a clothed teen carjacking suspect in February 2021. Cook County Judge Joseph Claps — who himself was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge after bringing a gun into the Leighton Criminal Court Building — found Roman not guilty in a bench trial last January.
The board also announced a two-year suspension for Officer Patrick Brown, who was involved in a deadly, high-speed crash on the West Side in May 2019. Earlier this year, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the union that represents rank and file CPD officers and detectives, tried unsuccessfully to remove Brown’s case and those of 21 other officers from the Police Board’s docket.
The effort came after arbitrator Edwin Benn, who oversaw contract negotiations between the city and union, ruled that CPD officers accused of serious misconduct are entitled to having their cases decided by a third party out of public view.
That provision of the contract agreement — which also provides a nearly 20% raise for officers over four years — prompted Mayor Brandon Johnson to bifurcate the City Council’s vote on the union contract. The vote on the economic package was approved, but the second part on disciplinary measures was voted down.